DWARD 
B. 


LE 


SYBIL    KNOX 

OR,  HOME  AGAIN 


SYBIL    KNOX 

OR,  HOME  AGAIN 

A  STORY  OF  TO-DAY 


EDWARD  E.   HALE 

ATTTHOB  Of   "ZAST  A3TO  WEST,"    "THE  HA3C    WTTHOtTT    A 

^V  TUCKS  O3TR  IS  TEX,"    "LITE    OF 
I,"    "UF«  OF  OQLCXBCS,"  KTC. 


NEW  YORK 

CASSELL  PUBLISHING  COMPANY 
104  &  106  FOUBTH  AVEXITE 


COPYBIQHT,  1892,  BY 

CASSELL  PUBLISHING  COMPANY. 


Att  rights  reserved. 


THZ  MEK8HON  COMPANY  PRESS, 
RAHWAY,  N.  J. 


SYBIL    KNOX; 

OH,  HOME  AGAIN. 


CHAPTER  I. 

IS  it  really  the  last  time  ? " 
"It  is  really  the  last  time,"  said  Mrs. 
Knox,  "  and  you  cannot  think  how  hard  it  is 
to  say  so,  for  you  have  no  such  experience." 

The  place  was  one  of  the  handsome  rooms 
of  the  United  States  Minister  in  Rome  ;  the 
time  was  as  one  of  his  evening  parties  came  to 
a  close.  The  people  were  Mrs.  Sybil  Knox 
and  John  Coudert.  She  had  made  her  head- 
quarters in  Rome  now  for  four  winters,  and 
was  about  to  return  to  America  after  an 
absence  of  seven  years.  He  had  been  in  Rome 
twice — for  the  Easter  festivities  of  two  years, 
that  is.  To  be  candid  with  the  reader,  he  had 
come  the  second  time  because,  in  all  his  work 


2  SYBIL   KNOX. 

and  all  his  play  of  the  summer  and  autumn, 
his  mind  had  run  back  to  this  charming 
woman,  and  he  was  "bold  enough  to  try  again 
to  find  what  was  the  secret  of  the  fascination. 

"I  think,"  said  he,  "  that  our  people  here, 
the  Americans — the  colony,  as  they  call  them 
on  the  other  side — had  relied  upon  you  as  one 
of  the  permanent  people,  the  fixtures.  Yoii 
will  be  sadly  missed  by  such  people  ;  and  by 
the  other  kind,  such  people  as  I,  who  have 
tasted  your  hospitality." 

"You  are  all  very  good,"  said  she,  hardly 
smiling,  indeed  almost  sadly.  "  It  is  a  hard 
business,  as  all  good-byes  are.  But  I  do  not 
like  to  have  people  tell  me  they  thought  I  was 
going  to  stay  here  I  am  sure  I  have  always 
flown  my  colors.  There  is  my  father's  Loyal 
Legion  badge,  now  ;  you  see  I  wear  it  to-night, 
as  I  always  do.  And  whenever  there  has  been 
a  chance  I  have  soared  with  the  spread  eagle." 

U0h,"  said  Mr.  Coudert,  "no  one  thinks 
anybody  is  going  to  stay  here  more  than  one 
more  winter." 

"  And  then  next  year  never  comes,  any  more 
than  to-morrow  comes.  But  I — I  almost  went 


SYBIL    KXOX.  3 

last  year."'  Then  she  paused,  and  said,  rather 
resolutely,  "I  wish  you  would  say  to  anybody 
and  everybody  that,  while  I  like  Italy  and 
have  enjoyed  it  to  the  fall,  I  have  stayed  here 
really  by  accident.  First— well,  yoa  do  not 
know — it  seemed  every  year  as  if  Mr.  Knox 
were  get  ting  better,  and  he  always  thought  one 
more  year  would  establish  him.  Then,  when 
it  was  all  over,  my  mother  came;  then,  you 
know,  my  sisters  came.  But  I  have  always 
been  beating  my  wings  against  the  cage, 
thongh  it  is  so  large  and  so  pretty.  I  shall  let 
the  girls  go  to  Naples  with  your  party,  and 
when  you  come  back  the  last  strap  will  be 
tight  around  the  last  balla,  and  I  shall  be 
waiting  on  the  steps  of  the  palace.  I  shall  not 
suffer  them  to  come  in  to  look  for  a  lost  hand- 
kerchief. '  Over  the  seas  and  far  away,'  "  and 
now  she  succeeded  in  smiling. 

';  Are  you  quite  so  sure  you  will  like  it  at 
first  ?  "  said  he  doubtfully. 

"Can  yon  say  that?  Everybody  else  has 
said  that,  and  I  am  fairly  angry.  As  if  I  were 
a  girl  when  I  came  away  !  If  anybody  knows 
America  I  do." 


4  SYBIL   KNOX. 

"Yery  likely,"  said  Mr.  Coudert.  "But 
nobody  does  know  America.  The  New  Eng- 
landers  hardly  know  New  England,  and  they 
do  not  know  what  a  ranch  is,  or  a  prairie. 
They  believe  in  nothing  ten  miles  beyond  New 
York.  As  poor  Lord  Salisbury  said,  the  scale 
of  the  maps  is  so  small.  The  New  Yorkers 
think  they  know  New  York,  and  do  not  know 
even  that.  Far  less  do  they  know  the  South, 
or  what  is  to  come  from  the  Pacific  shore. 
The  other  day  I  saw  in  a  *  leading  newspaper ' 
a  great  head-line  about  '  Smoky  Pittsburgh 
The  man  did  not  know  that  for  four  or  five 
years  the  sky  above  Pittsburg  has  been  like 
the  sky  above  the  Campagna.  Indeed,  if  you 
know  America  to-day  you  do  not  know  it  to- 
morrow." 

"  That  is  why  one  wants  to  live  there,"  said 
she  proudly,  and  looking,  as  he  thought,  more 
charming  than  ever  in  her  enthusiasm.  "And 
why  one  wants  to  be  there  before  one  is  quite 
hoary  with  age.  You  see  I  must  go  soon." 

"  You  will  find  it  hard  to  choose  another 
Rome,"  persisted  he. 

"  They  tell  me  there  are  sixteen  on  the  list 


SYBIL   KXOX.  5 

of  post-offices,"  she  answered,  laughing,  "be- 
sides Roma  and  Xew  Rome.  But  I  shall  not 
try  any  of  these.  I  have  no  choice  to  make 
between  cities." 

"If  you  had,  you  would  choose  Washing- 
ton. After  Florence  and  Geneva,  Washington 
is  the  most  charming  city  in  the  world." 

"Seville?"  asked  she;  "or  what's  the 
matter  with  Damascus  ? " 

"They  are  not  in  America,"  said  he,  catch- 
ing her  own  tone  of  the  minute  before.  "  Bat 
if  you  are  not  going  to  any  of  these,  where  is 
it  ?  You  do  not  mean  to  be  a  ranchera,  or  the 
Lady  Bountiful  of  a  bonanza  farm  in  Da- 
kota*" 

"HTo,  I  shall  not,  though  I  have  thought  of 
that  and  thought  seriously.  For  I  should  like 
to  be  of  use  somewhere.  And  really,  Mr. 
Coudert,  I  am  not  quite  a  fool.  I  do  know 
enough  to — well,  I  can  draw  a  cheque  and  I 
can  sign  a  receipt  for  my  dividends.  Before 
my  father  died  he  called  me  his  confidential 
clerk.  And  I  am  one  of  the  women  who 
would  really  like  something  to  do." 

He  told  her  that  he  remembered  she  said 


6  SYBIL   KNOX. 

something  of  the  sort  before,  one  day,  when 
they  had  all  made  a  party  to  Tivoli  together. 
He  knew  in  his  own  heart  that  it  was  this  sort 
of  ability  to  enter  into  affairs,  as  one  who  was 
of  them  and  could  be  in  them,  which  gave 
something  of  the  charm  which  so  many  men 
found  in  her  bright  talk.  And,  at  the  same 
time,  he  shuddered  when  he  compared  her 
mentally  with  two  or  three  "women  of  affairs" 
whom  he  had  seen  in  his  own  country  or  in 
England,  trying  to  show  men  that  they  are  not 
fools,  and  hardly  succeeding — the  women  who 
move  "  to  lay  on  the  table,"  or  to  "  refer  to  a 
committee  of  the  whole." 

"Life  is  life,"  he  said.  "Of  course  the 
whole  thing  is  comparative.  I  have  put  as 
much  work  on  the  slicing  the  section  of  the 
cell  of  a  fern,  and  mounting  it  on  a  slide,  as 
Mr.  Gladstone  putg  into  a  treaty  with  Russia. 
And  the  good  God  cares  as  truly  for  the  one 
as  He  does  for  the  other.  I  suppose  the 
Dakota  bonanza  farm  does  not  much  astonish 
Him." 

It  was  John  Coudert's  willingness  to  talk 
seriously  which  had  interested  Mrs.  Knox  in 


SYBIL  KXQX.  7 

him  the  first  time  she  saw  him ;  and  which, 
indeed,  distinguished  him  from  the  average  of 
travelling  Americans  who  stopped  to  do  Rome, 
before  they  went  on  to  do  Pompeii  and  Sor- 
rento. She  was  not  nnnsed  to  that  habit  of 
talk  of  his,  and  she  knew  it  was  genuine. 

"Yon  have  it  precisely."  said  she.  "My 
principality  is  larger  than  the  Prince  of 
Monaco's,  I  believe.  It  is  smaller  than  a 
Dakota  wheat  farm.  It  is  '  two  hundred  acres 
of  woodland,  be  the  same  more  or  less ;  two 
hundred  acres  of  pasture-land,  be  the  same 
more  or  less  ;  and  one  hundred  and  five  acres 
of  arable  land,  or  meadow,  be  the  same  more 
or  less;  together  with^the  homestead  and 
barns  and  offices." j:  All  this  she  drawled  out 
with  admirable  Yankee  intonation,  as  if  she 
were  about  to  offer  it  for  sale  at  auction.  "  If 
it  were  described  in  an  English  novel  they 
would  say  it  was  '  all  in  a  ring  fence."  For 
the  truth  ^is  that  it  was  a  military  grant  made 
to  one  Gershom  Wood  and  his  brother,  after 
Queen  Anne's  War ;  and  so  it  came  down  to 
my  father.  I  could  have  told  you  the  bound- 
aries once,  they  are  so  simple :  *  Beginning  at 


8  SYBIL   KNOX. 

a  stake  and  stones  on  the  south  side  of  Powder 
Horn  Hill,'  and  so  on. 

"The  homestead  is  to  be  ray  palazzo.  The 
arable  land  will  give  me  my  duty,  and  the 
woodland  will  be  my  burden.  You  must  all 
pray  for  me  when  you  go  to  St.  Peter's,  that  I 
may  not  die  land-poor." 

"  I  am  not  afraid  of  that,"  said  he,  without 
restraining  a  tone  of  admiration.  "  Somebody 
in  the  next  town  will  develop  a  factory  of  hair- 
springs for  watches,  and  then  you  will  show 
that  the  charcoal  from  red  oak  is  the  only 
charcoal  for  their  temper,  and  when  I  next  see 
you  you  will  be  a  bonanza  queen  in  Madison 
Avenue,  who  has  developed  a  nabobry  from 
unknown  qualities  of  carbon.  No  fear  of  be- 
ing land-poor.  But — 

"  Always  '  but,'  Mr.  Coudert." 

"But,"  he  went  on,  "I  have  lived  in  such 
a  place.  I  have  seen  my  mother  fight  with 
beasts  in  such  a  place."  He  was  even  bitter 
now.  "  Have  you  really  asked  yourself  what 
it  is  to  be  alone  in  the  centre  of  six  hundred 
and  forty  acres,  '  be  the  same  more  or  less,'— 
to  meet  no  one  for  a  month  who  does  not 


SYIJt  KXOX.  9 

ask  you  if  Mrs.  Barrett  would  not  be  wiser  if 
she  turned  the  skirt  of  her  frock,  and  who 
does  not  wonder  why  the  doctor  paints  his 
buggy  green  when  it  was  black  before ! " 

"And  why  not!"  she  replied  a  little 
fiercely.  "The  Countess  yonder  was  dis- 
cussing with  me  just  now  the  shade  of  the 
Princess's  velvet,  whether  ashes  of  roses  was 
as  becoming  to  her  as  Parma  violet.  Gossip 
is  gossip.  I  am  very  tired  of  it  here,  and  I  do 
not  believe  it  would  be  worse  at  Washington, 
or  Cranberry  Centre.  At  all  events,  I  mean 
to  try." 

She  was  so  eager,  even  so  angry,  as  she 
spoke,  that  John  Coudert  knew  he  had 
struck  home,  and  that  he  had  touched  the 
raw  spot  of  which  she  herself  was  conscious. 
For  himself,  he  believed  that  the  eternal  gos- 
sip which  he  satirized  had  brought  his  mother 
to  her  grave.  He  knew  perfectly  well  that 
the  reason  why  his  sisters  and  he  had  agreed, 
with  one  consent,  to  sell  [their  fine  old  home, 
was  that  no  one  of  them  could  abide  the  daily 
drizzle  of  that  gossip,  its  summer  showers,  or 
its  winter  hail.  Because  his  sisters  were 


10  SYBIL    KNOX. 

afraid  of  it,  they  were  spending  winters  in 
what  he  called  disreputable  attics  in  Paris — 
which  were  really  rooms  in  elegant  French 
pensions — and  they  sometimes  spent  summers, 
taking  their  chances  of  the  gossip,  at  Elberon 
or  Long  Branch.  He  had  not  probed  Mrs. 
Knox's  wound  without  some  memory  of  other 
wounds,  and  of  what  had  come  of  them. 

And  so  it  was,  in  less  than  a  fortnight  from 
the  time  when  she  had  been  talking  with  John 
Coudert  at  the  Minister's,  Mrs.  Knox  found 
herself  on  the  after-deck  of  the  fast  steamer 
Tropic,  on  her  fourth  day  out  from  Queens- 
town,  on  her  way  to  America.  This  time  she 
was  not  talking  with  John  Coudert,  but  with 
another  pleasant  man,  Judge  Kendrick  of 
Wisconsin.  His  wife,  poor  soul !  was  lying  in 
her  long  chair,  wrapped  with  rugs,  speechless, 
and  almost  without  sight  or  hearing,  as  she 
courageously  bore  her  half-recovery  from  sea- 
sickness. Mrs.  Knox's  young  people  were  all 
below  in  their  wretchedness.  For  herself,  she 
was  as  well  as  ever,  was  happy  that  the  thing 
was  one-third  over,  and  glad  to  renew  her  ac- 
quaintance with  the  Kendricks,  which  had 


SYBIL   KXOX.  11 

begun  a  year  or  two  before,  on  the  slope  of 
Vesuvius. 

"  Yes,  the  world  is  a  small  world,  in  a 
way,"  said  she,  and  then,  hardly  expecting 
to  be  answered,  "it  is  in  a  way  a  very  big 
one." 

"  So  small,"  said  he,  "  that  when  you  meet 
a  man  once  you  may  be  sure  that  you  will 
meet  him  again — yes,  Or  a  woman.  I  met 
you  at  Vesuvius,  ergo  I  meet  you  on  the 
Troptc." 

"  I  like  to  believe  it,"  said  she,  "  and  let  us 
hope  that  the  spell  may  last  after  you  hare 
looked  in  on  Milwaukee  and  I  on  my  wood- 
lots.  But  I  suppose  there  is  in  the  notion  a 
little  of  the  Caesar's  boat  element.  It  is  like 
my  Aunt  Huldah's  aphorism." 

''I  know  Caesar  and  his  boat,  but  I  had 
not  the  pleasure  of  Aunt  Huldah' s  acquaint- 
ance." 

"  No  ?  What  a  pity !  I  thought  everybody 
knew  Aunt  Huldah.  Aunt  Huldah  said  she 
had  observed  that  if  she  lived  through  March 
she  always  lived  through  the  year.  It  was 
like  Caesar's  saying  that  his  boats  never  up- 


12  SYBIL   KNOX. 

set.  He  was  in  a  leaky  one  on  the  Ides  of 
March." 

"  Yes,  he  was  ;  but  Aunt  Huldah  does  not 
laugh  me  out  of  my  certainty  that  all  things 
are  double,  as  it  says  in  the  Bible " 

"  If  you  buy  it  in  Oxford." 

"Yes,  or  at  the  Queen's  printing-house. 
Tell  me,  if  all  things  are  not  double,  why  I 
put  down  a  letter  from  General  Knox  to 
George  Washington  the  minute  before  I  came 
on  deck  to  meet  you." 

"  Or  why  I  ate  one  of  Kendrick's  biscuits  in 
my  stateroom  before  I  came  up  to  meet  you." 

"Excellent!"  he  said.  "I  confess  I  was 
astonished  that  you  remembered  our  names  so 
perfectly.  It  cannot  be  that  you  will  succeed 
so  well  in  New  York.  How  long  since  you 
have  seen  the  Battery  ?  " 

"Do  not  tell  any  one,  but  it  is  seven  years — 
seven  years  and  more.  And  sometimes  it 
seems  a  thousand,"  and  she  sighed. 

"  Are  you  prepared  to  be  interviewed  ?  Five 
boats  lying  at  quarantine,  with  the  reporters 
of  the  Argus,  the  Tribune,  the  World,  the 
Herald,  and  the  Ring -Tailed  Roarer,  to 


SYBIL   KXOX,  13 

inquire  how  Mrs.  Knox  bore  the  passage,  on 
what  train  she  will  leave,  and  whether  she  is 
favorably  impressed  by  America." 

"  I  shall  shelter  myself  behind  you  and  Mrs. 
Kendrick.  They  will  be  writing  as  fast  as 
they  can  the  answers  to  the  questions,  whether 
you  approve  of  the  original  package  decision, 
whether  you  stop  at  the  Saratoga  convention 
before  going  home,  and  whether  you  mean  to 
offer  yourself  for  the  Presidency,  or  to  wait  for 
a  nomination." 

"No,"  he  said,  with  pretended  sadness,  "I 
shall  not  be  interviewed.  I  am  one  of  them- 
selves. Foxes  do  not  talk  to  foxes,  nor  news- 
paper men  to  newspaper  men." 

••Xo?    That  is  new." 

"As  true  as  new.  Mr.  Elaine  would  have 
been  President  long  ago  had  he  not  began 
life  as  an  editor.  As  it  was,  not  an  edi- 
tor between  thirty  and  seventy  but  said  in 
his  heart,  '  Jim  Elaine  President  ?  I  might  as 
well  be  President  myself.' " 

* 4  How  natural  that  is  !  And  how  fortunate 
for  women  that  they  do  not  have  to  think  of 
being  President.  To  tell  you  the  honest  truth, 


14  SYBIL   KNOX. 

Judge  Kendrick,  there  are  a  thousand  things 
in  which  women's  talk  and  their  thoughts 
differ  from  men's." 

"I  have  always  said  so,"  said  he,  "but  I 
have  never  heard  but  two  women  say  it.  You 
are  one,  and  the  other  was  twenty  years  old ;  I 
was  very  much  in  love  with  her." 

"Mrs.  Kendrick,  your  husband  is  telling 
tales  about  you." 

"  No,  my  dear  Mrs.  Knox,  I  hear  him.  He 
is  talking  about  Bertha  Angevine.  It  is  not 
safe  for  him  to  tell  how  much  he  was  in  love 
with  me." 

"  What  insight  she  has,"  said  her  husband, 
in  a  stage  whisper,  "when  I  gave  her  such  a 
mere  hint  to  guess  from.  It  was  Bertha  Ange- 
vine, long  since  Mrs.  Dr.  Abernethy,  or  Louis, 
or  Camomile.  I  said  that  men  had  very  little 
chance  to  think  things  out.  It  was  only  at 
church,  when  the  sermon  was  long,  that  a  man 
could  carry  out  a  line  of  thought.  She  said 
she  had  noticed  that,  but  that  women  had  lots 
of  time,  when  they  were  sewing." 

"It  was  true,"  said  Mrs.  Knox.  "It  was 
true — then.  But  now,  alas  ! — now,  they  do 


SYBIL   KXOX.  15 

not  sew  much.  They  'put  out  their  sewing,' 
and  it  is  done  by  steam  or  electricity,  and 
they " 

"Go  to  weddings,  my  friend  Haliburton  tells 
me." 

"Do  what!" 

"Haliburton  says  that  if  his  church  is 
opened  for  the  wedding  of  a  little  mouse  of  a 
button-hole  maker,  married  to  the  third  assist- 
ant of  the  fourth  clerk  of  the  bottle-washer — 
two  people  who  have  not  lived  a  week  in  Bos- 
ton, and  are  married  in  church  only  because 
they  hate  the  woman  who  keeps  her  boarding- 
house — Haliburton  says  that  even  at  such  a 
wedding  as  that,  though  it  were  Monday 
morning  at  eleven  o'clock,  his  large  church 
would  be  crowded.  And  Haliburton' s  infer- 
ence is  that  the  average  American  woman, 
after  *  her  education  is  finished,'  has  nothing 
in  the  world  to  do.*' 

"I  don't  know,-"  said  Mrs.  Knox  doubt- 
fully, after  a  moment;  "I  should  have  said 
that  the  trouble  was  the  other  way.  The 
American  girls,  after  they  have  left  school, 
have  seemed  to  me  to  be  '  on  a  drive,'  as  the 


16  SYBIL   KNOX. 

lumbermen  say.  I  have  not  seen  them  in  their 
homes  for  ten  years.  Bat  they  have  talked  to 
me  when  they  were  in  Rome.  What  with 
their  lessons,  and  causes,  and  Saturday  clubs, 
and  their  charities,  and  their  voting  for  the 
school  committee,  and  their  helping  dear  papa, 
and  helping  dear  mamma,  and  at  the  same 
time  going  to  Newport,  and  maintaining  their 
relations  to  society — germans  in  the  evening, 
and  going  to  whist  classes  in  the  morning — I 
should  not  think  they  had  much  time  to  go  to 
any  weddings  but  their  own." 

"  All  I  can  say  is,"  he  replied,  "  that  Tuttle 
told  me  the  other  day  that  all  the  street- car 
connection  of  the  West  End  of  Boston  was  de- 
ranged because  a  pretty  girl  was  married  at 
Trinity  Church,  and  that  things  did  not  come 
to  their  bearings  till  an  hour  after  Dr.  Brooks 
blessed  them.  Perhaps  that  is  Boston.  I 
always  heard  that  Boston  was  founded  by 
church  people,  only  I  thought  it  was  of  another 
kind." 

But  Mrs.  Knox  did  not  listen  ;  so  soon  as  she 
could  speak  without  interrupting  him,  she 
pointed  with  her  closed  parasol  at  the  cold  sun, 


SYBIL  KXOX.  17 


which  was  making  a  wretched  effort  to  peer 
through  the  fog.  "  Why  in  the  world  is  it 
there  ?  Why  is  the  sun  in  the  west  at  ten 
o'clock  in  the  morning  I" 

Sure  enough  the  sun  was  on  the  starboard 
quarter.  The  ship  was  —  not  aiming  at  it,  but 
going  that  way,  somewhat  to  the  left  of  the 
son. 

"  Is  it  the  snn  ?  It  must  be  the  sun,"  said 
the  Judge.  But  a  queer,  creeping  feeling  came 
over  them  all,  as  if  for  once  the  snn  in  these 
foggy  days  had  risen  in  the  west.  He  ran  for- 
ward to  find  an  officer  and  inquire.  He  came 
back  blank  enough.  Something  had  happened 
to  the  screw,  or  its  connections.  It  was  not 
thought  wise  to  go  on.  The  ship  happened  to 
be  governed  by  a  captain,  and  not  by  a  caucus. 
She  had,  therefore,  been  headed  back  to  Ire- 
land without  consultation  of  the  passengers. 
They  would  be  notified  in  good  time.  Mean- 
while this  information  had  been  given  to  the 
Judge,  because  there  was  no  reason  why  it 
should  be  hidden. 

"  A  week  more  !  "  groaned  poor  Mrs.  Ken- 
drick. 


18  SYBIL    KNOX. 

"  A  week  more !  "  said  her  husband,  in  a  tone 
quite  as  abject ;  "  and  what  will  become  of  the 
meeting  of  the  Full  Bench,  I  am  sure  I  do  not 
know." 

"A  week  more!"  said  Mrs.  Knox,  more 
wretched  than  either.  Here  was  her  brother 
waiting  for  her  in  New  York ;  here  were 
twenty  appointments  with  trustees — nay,  here 
were  invitations  which  she  had  given,  and 
which  had  been  accepted  by  friends,  at  the  re- 
established home.  "A  week  more  !  "  she  said 
dismally.  "The  bottom  is  out  from  my  tub. 
All  my  calculations  are  out  of  order." 

"And  what  will  they  say  when  the  Tropic 
does  not  arrive  ? "  said  poor  Mrs.  Kendrick. 

All  the  same,  all  parties  had  to  accept  the 
universe,  whether  they  wanted  to  or  no.  In 
this  case  very  few  of  them  wanted  to.  There 
were  one  or  two  waifs  of  fortune  who  were  glad 
to  have  the  Tropic  Steamship  Company  feed 
them  for  eighteen  days  instead  of  nine,  for  the 
same  sum  of  money.  There  were  two  pair  of 
young  lovers  who  thought  moonlight  on  deck 
"perfectly  splendid,"  and  who,  in  a  false 
astronomy,  supposed  that,  while  they  were  at 


SYBIL   KXOX.  19 

sea,  the  moon  would  not  change.  For  the  rest, 
it  seemed  impossible  to  adapt  themselves  to  the 
new  conditions.  Bat  it  was  not  impossible,  and 
somehow  or  other  they  adapted. 

Poor  days  brought  them  back  to  Queens- 
town  Harbor,  and,  as  it  was  ordered,  as  they 
came  to  anchor  in  the  bay,  and  the  first  officer 
went  up  with  his  tidings,  the  Antarctic,  of  the 
same  line  with  them,  came  in,  anchored  oppo- 
site them,  and  sent  for  her  American  mails. 
She  was  on  her  outward  voyage.  A  boat  was 
at  once  sent  across  to  her  to  know  what  chances 
there  were  for  passage.  But  the  reply  was  un- 
promising. The  captain  would  give  up  his 
stateroom  to  any  party  of  four.  There  were 
two  berths  for  two  men  in  staterooms  only  half 
peopled.  "  That  is  the  whole ! "  This  was  the 
doleful  reply  of  the  surgeon.  With  absolute 
promptness,  savoring  of  the  western  side  of  the 
Mississippi,  Judge  Kendrick  claimed  the  cap- 
tain's stateroom  before  any  one  else  had  begun 
to  think  about  it.  Two  travelling  salesmen 
took  the  two  berths  in  the  same  way.  The 
Kendrick  girls  ran  downstairs  to  tell  their 
mother,  and  to  pack  their  stateroom  luggage. 


20  SYBIL   KNOX. 

All  else,  as  they  knew,  must  come  by  another 
vessel.  Before  the  tug  with  the  mails  had 
delivered  them,  the  boat  was  ready,  and  the 
Judge' s  party  were  bidding  good-bye.  As  Mrs. 
Kendrick  took  her  place,  somewhat  shaken  by 
the  descent  of  the  landing-ladder,  she  found, 
to  her  amazement,  Mrs.  Knox  seated  there 
already. 

''Not  a  word,"  whispered  Mrs.  Knox.  "I 
am  a  second-class  passenger.  Never  fear.  In 
the  second  class  there  is  always  room  for  one 
more." 

A  half-sovereign  in  one  place  and  a  sover- 
eign in  another  had  settled  all  this  while  the 
others  were  packing.  Mrs.  Knox  was  sit- 
ting on  the  extensor  which  held  her  worldly 
goods,  and  trusted  in  the  officers  of  the  Tropic 
that  the  rest  would  follow.  She  ran  upon  the 
deck  of  the  Antarctic  with  the  Kendricks,  and 
disappeared. 

She  was  wholly  right  in  her  surmise.  For  a. 
second-class  passenger,  as  for  one  in  the  steer- 
age, there  is  always  room  for  one  more. 


CHAPTER  IL 

A  FIVE-DOLLAR  gold  piece,  well  bestowed 
-LA.  in  the  hands  of  the  woman  steward  who 
had  the  oversight  of  second-class  women,  gave 
to  Mrs.  Knox  a  quiet  berth,  where  her  neigh- 
bor overhead  was  a  frightened  German  woman, 
who  became,  as  we  shall  see,  her  fast  friend. 
For  the  rest,  if  it  were  not  for  the  name  sec- 
ond-class, which  nobody  likes,  she  was  as  well 
off  as  is  the  average  traveller  on  any  steamer  of 
any  line.  She  could  not  order  a  Welsh  rarebit 
at  midnight.  But  she  would  not  have  ordered 
one  had  she  been  a  first-class  voyager.  The 
table  was  not  very  good,  nor  would  it  have  been 
very  good  under  any  circumstances.  The  bed 
was  clean,  thanks  to  the  five-dollar  piece,  and, 
as  Mrs.  Knox  observed,  it  was  a  little  larger 
than  hers  had  been  in  the  stateroom  of  the 
Tropic.  The  people  whom  she  met  at  meals 
were  all  women,  and  all  spoke  German.  As  she 
spoke  German,  too,  this  did  not  in  itself  so 


22  SYBIL   KNOX. 

much  matter.  In  fact,  she  was  tired  to  death  by 
the  rush  of  the  last  week  in  Europe  ;  she  knew 
she  should  spend  fifteen  hours  of  each  twenty- 
four  flat  on  her  back,  and,  as  it  happened  in  this 
particular  case,  she  had  more  air  and  bigger 
quarters  in  this  part  of  her  enterprise  than  she 
had  before. 

It  would  have  been  quite  impossible,  as  she 
well  knew,  to  make  this  second-class  passage 
tolerable  for  an  instant  in  the  eyes  of  any  of 
her  large  party  excepting  herself.  Indeed, 
there  were  too  many  of  them  for  any  move- 
ment which  required  such  promptness.  But, 
more  than  this,  her  nieces  looked  forward  to 
the  voyage  home  as  one  more  lottery  in  the  ex- 
perience of  travel.  It  would  not  be  fair  to  say 
that  they  looked  forward  to  a  week  of  mild  or 
exciting  flirtation,  after  their  seasickness  was 
over,  but,  at  the  very  least,  it  was — well,  let  us 
say,  an  untried  adventure :  who  there  might 
be,  whom  one  might  meet,  with  a  clean  deck, 
long  walks,  and  chances,  by  the  hour,  of  talk  in 
extension  chairs.  It  was  easy  enough  for  Mrs. 
Knox  to  charge  the  escort  men  with  the  re- 
moval of  her  trunks  in  the  hold,  which,  of 


SYBIL    KXOX.  23 

course,  could  not  be  found  now.  For  herself, 
her  stateroom  "plunder"  most  answer  her 
purposes  till  all  should  come  together  again  in 
America. 

Bertha  Berlitz,  the  frightened  German 
woman  in  the  upper  berth,  who  had  been  ter- 
ribly seasick  already  in  the  little  experience  of 
the  sea  since  she  sailed,  was  going  to  America 
in  that  sad  search  for  a  lost  husband  which  re- 
peats itself  so  often,  in  the  romance  of  two  con- 
tinents. The  sympathy  and  experienced  kind- 
ness of  Sybil  Knox  worked  their  inevitable 
way  with  the  forlorn  woman,  and  on  the 
second  day  she  was  persuaded  to  sip  a  part  of 
a  cup  of  tear  to  take  a  few  spoonfuls  of  oat- 
meal porridge,  and,  at  last,  to  try  her  feet 
again  upon  the  deck.  The  experiment  was  a 
joy  to  her  little  girl,  a  nice,  jolly  little  mad- 
chen  of  six  or  seven  years,  who  had  vanquished 
her  seasickness,  child- fashion,  in  a  couple  of 
hours,  and  had  been  won  over  to  absolute  con- 
fidence in  Sybil  Knox  by  that  lady's  skfll  in 
creating  paper  dolls,  and  by  the  dramatic 
interest  of  the  conversations  which  she  made 
them  maintain  with  one  another.  The  mother 


24  SYBIL   KNOX. 

was,  of  course,  grateful  for  such  kindness 
to  her  little  girl,  though  she  was  more  shy 
than  words  can  describe ;  she  yielded  slowly 
to  absolute  kindness,  and  told  to  her  new 
friend  her  history  and  her  hopes. 

It  had  been  a  pure  love-match,  that  was 
clear  enough.  And,  until  he  left  for  America, 
there  had  been  no  break,  there  was  no  rival, 
there  was  no  falsehood.  A  handsome  boy  and 
a  pretty  girl  in  a  village  in  the  Hartz  Moun- 
tains— all  just  like  a  scene  in  an  opera,  or  a 
story  by  Grimm.  He  was  a  forester  in  the 
government  employ,  but  he  was  of  the  kind  of 
forester  which  is  at  the  bottom,  and  not  the 
kind  which  is  at  the  top.  That  distinction 
reigns  in  forestry  as  in  all  the  other  vocations 
of  feudal  countries.  That  is  to  say,  there  is 
one  sort  of  people  who  do  the  hard  work  and 
have  poor  pay.  And  there  is  another  sort  of 
people,  who  wear  a  little  or  much  gold  lace  on 
their  clothes,  who  ride  about  on  horses,  tell 
the  other  people  what  to  do,  though  they 
don't  know  so  much  about  it,  and  have  good 
pay.  After  their  dear  little  Rudolph  died 
Gerhard  had  said  he  would  have  no  more  of  it. 


SYBIL   KXOX.  25 

He  said  the  boy  was  the  same  as  if  he  had 
starved  to  death.  This  was_  not  true,  as  poor 
Bertha  explained  volubly.  But  it  was  true 
that  Rudolph  had  not  had  the  same  food  or 
the  same  comfort  as  he  would  have  had  were 
.he  a  baron's  son.  Nay,  the  baron's  son,  a 
sickly  boy,  was  alive  when  Bertha  told  all  this 
sad  tale.  Any  way,  Rudolph's  death  had 
made  Gerhard  unhappy  and  discontented. 
He  said  he  knew  all  there  was  to  be  known 
about  forests,  and  that  a  new  country  where 
there  are  forests  was  the  place  for  him.  So  he 
left  her  and  Clarchen  with  the  grandfather 
and  grandmother,  and  with  two  hundred 
thalers  he  went  to  America  to  make  ready  for 
them  to  come. 

And  there  had  been  letters — five  letters — 
all  which  poor,  half-widowed  Bertha  had, 
wrapped  up  in  a  piece  of  parchment,  and  then 
slipped  all  together  in  a  red-flannel  bag.  Not 
on  the  first,  nor  the  second,  nor  the  third  day, 
but  before  the  voyage  was  over,  these  precious 
letters  were  entrusted  to  Mrs.  Knox,  that  she 
might,  if  she  could,  solve  the  mystery  why 
there  were  no  more. 


26  SYBIL    KNOX. 

Alas !  there  is  always  one  solution,  when 
there  are  no  more,  in  such  cases — the  solution 
which,  of  course,  poor  Bertha  would  not  state 
in  words,  nor,  indeed,  would  Sybil  Knox. 
First,  there  were  two  letters  from  New  Bergen, 
a  little  place  not  far  from  New  York,  where 
he  had  found  work,  at  what  seemed  marvellous 
wages,  as  a  gardener.  Then  there  was  one  from 
New  Pfalz,  in  the  State  of  New  York,  more 
inland.  Then  he  had  worked  his  way  to 
Rochester,  and  was  at  work  in  a  nursery. 
There  were  enthusiastic  stories  of  the  peaches 
and  pears  and  plums  which  Clarchen  was  to 
eat  when  she  came  over.  There  was  no  hint 
of  declining  interest.  There  was  nothing 
from  which  that  "other  woman"  could  be 
suspected,  who  is  so  apt  to  appear  when  an 
ocean  has  come  into  a  drama.  But  the  second 
Rochester  letter  spoke  of  an  engagement  to  go 
to  the  West,  with  yet'  another  nurseryman. 
She  was  still  to  write  to  Rochester,  for  he 
would  be  back  when  her  letter  came.  Then 
there  was  one  letter  written  on  the  train,  and 
dated  "Liberty" — just  a  line  to  say  that  he 
was  well.  Of  this  letter,  alas,  the  cover  and 


SYBIL   KXOX.  27 

postmark  had  been  lost.  And  these  were 
all. 

Mrs.  Knox  sighed  a  long  sigh  as  she  half- 
explained  what  she  did  not  dare  express 
wholly — how  many  Libertys  there  were. 

Such  was  the  clew  by  which  a  husband  was 
was  to  be  discovered,  who  himself  gave  no  sign 
where  he  was.  Was  he  dead,  alas,  or  was 
there  "  the  other  woman  "  ? 


CHAPTER  III. 

JUDGE  KENDRICK  evidently  leaned  to 
the  impression  that  the  "  other  woman  " 
had  carried  the  lost  Berlitz  off.  If  so  he 
doubted  whether  any  pursuit  would  avail. 
"  He  has  only  to  change  his  name  to  Brown  or 
Jones — they  all  do,"  he  said,  "and  it  is  all 
over." 

For  Judge  Kendrick  had,  at  the  very  first, 
after  his  household  was  established  in  the  cap- 
tain's stateroom,  come  down  to  offer  his  berth 
to  Mrs.  Knox.  If  she  said  she  was  comfort- 
able, she  gave  him  new  reason  to  say  that  he 
would  be  as  comfortable,  and  she  would  be  such 
a  comfort  to  his  wife.  There  was  more  than 
one  first-class  passenger  of  her  old  friends  of 
travel  ready  to  make  the  same  proposal,  as  soon 
as  it  was  whispered,  in  the  New  England  section 
of  the  three  hundred  first-class  passengers 
on  the  Tropic,  that  that  nice  Mrs.  Knox,  who 
received  so  pleasantly  in  the  Via  Sabina,  was 

88 


>YBIL    KXOX.  29 

in  the  second  cabin.  There  were  half  a  dozen 
gentlemen,  who  had  enjoyed  her  hospitality, 
whose  wives  sent  them  to  her  with  the  same 
invitation  the  Judge  had  brought  to  her.  But 
she  was  steel  to  their  entreaties.  Wild  horses 
should  not  drag  her  into  the  first  cabin,  she 
said.  No  ;  the  captain  was  not  to  be  asked  if 
she  might  not  sit  on  the  upper  deck  with  them. 
Discipline  was  discipline,  and  she  was  well 
pleased  with  her  German  and  Yorkshire 
friends.  She  always  had  been  tempted  to  take 
a  steerage  passage.  This  was  not  that.  But, 
if  a  word  more  were  said,  she  would  go  into  the 
steerage,  and  then  none  of  them  could  find 
her. 

All  the  same  the  Judge  used  to  make  a  call 
on  her  every  day  and  take  a  constitutional 
with  her.  She  would  give  him  this  hour. 
And,  of  course,  she  consulted  him  about 
Bertha  Berlitz's  chances. 

•'Poor  enough,   you  would  say."  said  he. 

^:ill.  if  the  man  were  alive,  or  if,  as  I  say, 
the  other  woman  were  not  alive,  they  would  be 
ninety  in  a  hundred.  You  say  he  was  in 
Rochester.  That  means  he  is  in  the  nurserv 


30  SYBIL   KXOX. 

business.  That  means  he  is  in  or  near  some 
large  town.  Now  do  you  know  that  so  perfect 
is  the  administration  at  Washington — 

"Are  you  laughing?"  said  she,  a  little 
annoyed. 

"Laughing?  Not  at  all.  The  administra- 
tion at  Washington  is  the  despair  of  Europe. 
It  is  only  our  own  habit  of  finding  fault  that 
has  taught  you  anything  else.  Do  you  believe 
that  in  Russia,  or  even  in  Paris,  there  is  a  staff 
like  what  there  is  at  Washington,  of  accom- 
plished men  and  women  whose  business  it  is 
to  find  Gerhard  Berlitz  ?  If  you  drop  a  letter 
into  the  post-office  the  day  you  land,  addressed 
Gerhard  Berlitz,  America,  and  it  have  anything 
of  value  enclosed  in  it,  this  staff  will  work 
on  it.  If  he  is  alive,  if  he  have  not  changed 
his  name,  if  he  live  in  a  large  town  or  city, 
they  will  find  him.  I  mean  that  they  have  a 
library  of  directories,  one  from  each  large  town 
and  city,  and  that  somebody  will  turn  up 
'Berlitz,  Gerhard'  in  every  directory,  and  that 
each  man  with  that  name  in  those  cities  will 
have  a  chance  at  the  letter.  Unless,  indeed, 
one  of  them  is  so  mean  as  to  take  it  from 


SYBIL  KXOX.  31 

the  office  and  not  return  it  for  another 
trial" 

-  You  gh-e  me  good  hope.'"  she  said,  "for  I 
hare  Bertha's  confidence  in  him.  There  is  no 
4 other  woman.-' 

"But  always " 

^Yes,  always,"  she  add  sadly.  4iWhy 
should  he  lire  when  so  many  others  die  I  I 
hare  tried  to  recall  what  railway  tragedies  there 
were  that  year.  He — it  is  fifteen  months  ago." 

"Yes,  well;  hope  if  yon  can;  make  her 
hope.  Qufcn  sabe? — it  may  yet  come  welL" 

And  such  was  the  modicum  of  expectation 
with  which  Mrs.  Knox  took  Bertha  Berlitz"  s 
affairs  in  hand.  What  would  hare  happened 
to  Bertha  Berlitz  if  the  Tropic  had  not  turned 
round,  she  nerer  inquired.  As  it  was,  the 
Tropic  had  turned  round.  And  as  she  had. 
Sybil  Knox  had  shared  Bertha  Berlitz' s  bed- 
room. And  as  she  had,  their  destinies  seemed 
to  flow  as  one. 

Yes,  when  they  were  in  the  long  shed  on  the 
pier  in  Xew  York  after  arriring.  the  shed  where 
people  identify  baggage,  and  gire  their  keys 
to  custom  inspectors,  Mrs,  Knox's  baggage 


32  SYBIL   KNOX. 

almost  passed  itself,  it  was  so  little.  Blessed 
are  they  who  have  no  luggage,  for  they  do  not 
have  to  wait  for  the  custom-house.  This  is  a 
true  proverb.  But  she  would  not  desert  Bertha 
— no,  not  though  she  were  wild  to  go  to  Macy's 
and  to  find  something  which  she  could  wear 
within  and  without.  The  day  gave  every 
promise  of  being  one  of  the  tremendously  hot 
days  of  early  spring.  Mrs.  Knox  had  met  her 
welcome  to  America  in  the  shape  of  a  note 
from  her  near  friend,  Mrs.  Lagrange,  to  whose 
house  she  was  going  at  once.  One  of  the  chil- 
dren was  poorly,  and  the  doctor  had  sent  them 
all  to  Lenox  earlier  than  she  expected.  Still 
the  house  was  open.  Mary  Connor  would  see 
that  all  was  comfortable,  and  here  was  John 
with  the  note,  to  be  of  any  service.  So  was  it, 
that  at  the  first  instant  of  return  to  her  own 
country  Mrs.  Knox  found  herself  alone  in  New 
York— alone,  but  that  she  had  attached  to  her- 
self a  German  woman,  who  could  not  speak  a 
word  of  English,  and  her  child. 

Now  there  was  absolutely  nothing  which  she 
would  not  do  with  Lucy  Lagrange,  or  which 
Lucy  Lagrange  would  not  do  with  her.  Had 


srox.  33 

telegraphed  from  Lenox:  "Send me  your 
diamond  bracelet  by  express,*9  she  would  hare 
done  it.  She  had  not  had  the  feast  question 
but  that  she  could  take  Bertha  and  Clirchen 
in  the  carriage  with  her  to  Lucy's  house,  keep 
them  there  while  she  stayed,  and  carry  them 
with  her.  But.  before  die  name  of  this  un- 
known Mary  Connor,  she  trembled.  She  did 
not  dare  carry  Bertha  to  her.  She  looked  at 
the  faultless  John,  in  his  matchless  livery,  and 
she  was  a  good  deal  afraid  of  him.  But  she 
did  not  let  him  know  this.  He  did  know  al- 
ready why  she  had  no  luggage,  and  he  under- 
stood Tery  readily  why  she  did  not  go  with 
him  uptown. 

What  would  the  poor  Fran  Berlitz  hare  done 
woe  there  no  Mrs.  Knox  1  This  question  pre- 
sented itself  to  that  lady,  and  to  Judge  Ken- 
drick  and  Mrs.  Kendrick,  all  of  whom  were 
trying  to  solve  the  problem. 

There  wis  a  grave,  business-like  looking  man 
on  one  side  of  the  shed  who  had  a  party  of 
twenty-odd  Norwegians  in  hand.  They  were 
sitting  on  their  trunks  till  a  lost  trunk  should 
be  found,  »IM!  waiting  his  command  to 


34  SYBIL    KNOX. 

Mrs.  Knox  had  noticed  them  on  the  voyage  as 
decent  people,  among-  the  steerage  passengers, 
who  kept  very  much  to  themselves.  Would 
not  their  leader  perhaps  take  Bertha  and  Clar- 
chen  to  a  decent  boarding-house,  where  she 
could  stay  for  a  day  or  two  ?  Judge  Kendrick 
made  the  inquiry.  Alas  !  the  man  was  a  Mor- 
mon elder,  and  the  people  were  Mormons.  "  If 
only  we  had  been  Latter  Day  Saints  we  should 
have  been  provided  for,"  said  Sybil  Knox 
afterward.  And  all  three  of  the  councillors 
wondered  why  the  Mormon  corner  of  the 
Church  of  Christ  was  the  only  corner  that 
seemed  to  care  for  this  business  of  taking 
strangers  into  a  new  land. 

"It  is  all  nonsense,"  said  Mrs.  Kendrick, 
under  the  impulse  of  this  wonder.  "  Fred,  we 
will  take  them  with  us  to  Harriet's.  They  may 
just  as  well  stay  at  New  Rochelle,  till  some- 
thing turns  up,  as  be  poking  about  here  in  this 
ideal  German  boarding-house  which  none  of  us 
know  how  to  find."  To  this  her  husband 
agreed  willingly,  Mrs.  Knox  unwillingly.  But 
she  had  to  give  way.  New  Rochelle  is  not  an 
hour  from  New  York,  and  Mrs.  Kendrick  had 


SYBIL  KXOX.  35 

been  at  home  there  till  she  was  married. 
Bertha's  big  trunk  should  be  stored  at  Xo.  999 
West  Fifty-second  Street  in  Lucy  Lagrange's 
palace.  Bertha  should  go  with  the  Kendricks 
to  New  Rochelle,  and  Sybil  Knox  should  stay 
in  XewYork  as  she  had  proposed,  while  she  re- 
fitted for  her  summer  adventures.  So  soon  as 
the  custom-house  people  were  satisfied,  John,  in 
all  his  grandeur,  was  told  that  the  coachman 
might  take  Mrs.  Knox  to  Arnold  &  Constable's. 
Judge  Kendrick,  who  called  himself  from  that 
moment  a  Mormon  elder,  took  his  wife  and 
the  German  contingent  across  to  the  Forty  - 
second  Street  Station,  and  Frau  Berlitz' s  enor- 
mous chest  was  confided  to  an  expressman  to 
carry  to  Mrs.  Lagrange's.  There  it  was  to 
remain  till  Mrs.  Knox  should  be  ready  to  go 
to  her  own  home. 

By  this  time  it  was  nearly  eleven.  By  this 
rime,  therefore,  it  was  certain  that  they  took 
their  lives  in  their  hands  in  these  adventures. 
The  people  in  the  streets  seemed  to  know  that 
something  was  in  the  air,  such  as  was  not  al- 
ways expected.  There  was  not  the  smart  tread, 
the  "  I-care-for-nobody  "  swing,  properly  in- 


36  SYBIL   KNOX. 

dicative  of  -the  cross  streets  in  lower  New  York. 
Rather  there  was  a  doubtful  and  even  slow 
movement,  unlike  the  laziness  of  Burgos,  un- 
like the  indifference  of  Messina,  but  unmistak- 
able. Even  the  impassive  coachman,  as  he  took 
the  order  for  Arnold  &  Constable,  deviated  so 
far  from  the  statutes  of  his  profession  as  to  ask 
if  Mrs.  Knox  would  need  the  horses  long. 
Whether  the  danger  of  a  hot  day  to  the  horses 
were  in  his  mind,  or  whether  he  doubted  how 
long  he  could  live  in  that  livery  coat,  he  did 
not  say. 

For  it  is  what  in  local  dialect  is  called  a 
"peeler."  It  was  one  of  the  awful  days 
when  the  "hot  wave,"  which  has  been  long 
predicted  and  failed,  delivers  itself,  all  unan- 
nounced, on  the  wretched  dwellers  in  cities. 
Higher  and  higher  the  thermometer  ;  more 
and  more  muggy  the  air  !  Within  the  great 
warehouses  you  felt  for  the  moment  cooler,  but 
even  there  the  lassitude  of  Southern  India  was 
on  everybody.  Mrs.  Knox  herself  felt  that  it 
was  madness  to  attempt  thought  as  to  tempo- 
rary costume.  She  withdrew  from  the  grandeurs 
of  her  first  plans  immediately.  She  ordered 


SYBIL   KXOX.  37 

the  great  coachman  to  take  her  to  Macy's, 
"  Where,  my  dear,  I  was  able  to  get  some 
things  I  conld  live  in,  till  my  trunks  came," 
and  then,  to  the  nndisgnised  joy  of  the  great 
coachman  and  the  greater  John,  gave  the  order 
for  "Home." 

Home,  indeed !  What  a  satire  !  Is  this 
home  ?  To  a  woman  seven  years  from  home, 
is  this  what  she  has  earned  \  Somehow  the 
memory  of  "seven  years"  brought  back  to 
Mrs.  Knox  a  scripture  recollection.  As  she 
went  up  the  steps,  as  John  opened  the  door 
with  a  pass-key,  as  her  eyes  fell  on  linen  covers 
in  the  drawing-room,  which  was  dark  with 
close-drawn  curtains,  she  said  to  herself,  * '  He 
bargained  for  Rachel,  and  lo  !  it  was  Leah." 
Mrs.  Mary  Connor  appeared,  respectful,  but 
so  limp.  Had  Mrs.  Knox  had  any  lunch  ? 
There  should  be  something  in  fifteen  minutes, 
only  John  had  telephoned  that  they  should 
lunch  downtown. 

"Yes — no — really,  Mrs.  Connor,  I  think 
a  bath  is  all  I  need.  Perhaps — yes,  a 
little  beef-tea  after  it.  You  see,  Mrs.  -Con- 
nor, I  am  not  quite  used  to  the  climate  yet" 


38  SYBIL    KNOX. 

As    if     any    one     were     ever     used     to    a 
"peeler"! 

And  this  was  her  welcome  home  !  Poor 
Sybil  Knox ! 

But  the  bath  did  its  perfect  work.  No,  she 
knew  that  she  could  not  have  had  these  perfect 
appurtenances  in  Rome.  There  were  new  de- 
vices for  faucets.  There  was  a  new  invention 
for  a  sponge-basket.  There  was  ingenuity,  and 
prettiness,  and  nicety  everywhere,  and  there 
was  water,  cold  water,  and  Mrs  Knox  was  her- 
self again. 

And  the  lunch  was  not  confined  to  beef -tea. 
Mrs.  Connor  was  on  her  mettle,  if  the  day  was 
a  "  peeler,"  and  gradually  a  little  appetite  de- 
veloped itself.  And  so  at  two  o'clock  Sybil 
sat  at  the  front  window,  wondering  how  she 
was  to  kill  the  afternoon,  but  feeling  as  able  to 
kill  it  as  if  it  were  Hercules.  Inspiration  came, 
and  she  rang. 

"Mrs.  Connor,  it  is  so  hot  that  I  think  I 
will  go  by  the  afternoon  train.  When  the  ex- 
pressman comes  with  the  great  box  I  told  you 
of " 


SYBIL    KXOX.  39 

And  at  that  moment  the  cart  drew  op  before 
the  door. 

"  I  wffl  speak  to  him  myself,  Mrs.  Connor," 
and  she  rushed  to  the  door. 

"Could  you  take  that  trunk  right  away  to 
the  Forty-second  Street  Station  ? ;" 

The  man  looked  amazed.  He  had  just  come 
from  that  place.  Bat  his  hand  closed  on  what 
in  some  languages  is  called  a  silver  cart-wheel. 
— the  dollar  of  the  modern  coinage.  He  was 
then  certain  he  could  return. 

"And  may  I  go  with  you — on  your  seat,  you 
know!" 

The  man  was  amazed,  but  had  no  objection. 
Mrs.  Connor  was  more  amazed.  The  great 
John  was  most  amazed  of  all.  But  he  brought 
down  Mrs.  Knox's  extensor. 

*•  I  will  write  to  Mrs.  Lag-range  myself.  I 
shall  be  just  in  time  for  the  train.  Thank  yon 
ever  so  much,  and  good-bye."  So,  to  the  hor- 
ror of  the  great  John,  she  stepped  lightly  to 
the  teamster  s  seat,  even  took  the  man's  whip 
from  his  hand  as  he  mounted  beside  her.  and 
drove  in  triumph  down  the  Fifth  Avenue  to 
the  station. 


40  SYBIL    KNOX. 

She  amused  herself,  as  she  went  by,  wonder- 
ing what  any  of  her  elegant  Eoman  guests 
would  say  should  they  meet  her.  But  at  such 
an  hour  as  this,  on  such  a  day  as  this,  none  of 
them  were  visible.  The  teamster  was  pleased 
with  her  readiness,  and  she  with  his.  She  had 
done  the  impossible.  Fran  Berlitz' s  huge 
chest  was  checked  for  Bennington  County,  and 
Mrs.  Knox  had  twenty  minutes  left,  to  find 
Frau  Berlitz  herself.  As  she  had  expected, 
that  excellent  woman,  with  her  child,  was  sit- 
ting in  the  corner  of  the  station  awaiting  the 
arrival  of  the  Kendricks.  Sybil  Knox  ex- 
plained to  her  that  all  plans  were  changed. 
She  left  a  note  for  the  Judge  with  the  parcel 
man  in  the  corner,  and  .at  three  o'clock  all 
three  were  off  to  try  to  be  at  "  home  again." 


CHAPTER  IV. 

MRS.  KXOX  had  not  seen  the  interior  of 
a  day  palace  car  for  eight  years.  She 
had  seen  nothing  like  one  in  crossing  from 
Borne  to  LirerpooL 

As  for  poor  Frau  Berlitz  and  her  little  girl, 
they  were  too  much  dazed  to  be  excited  or  sur- 
prised abont  anything.  But  Mrs.  Knox  was 
amused  and  interested.  She  had  lived  in  a 
palace  before — if  -'palace"  be  the  English  of 
"palazzo'? — and  she  pleased  herself  by  an 
analysis  of  her  surroundings,  which  showed 
how  much  she  had  here  which  she  had  not 
there — how  much  she  had  there  which  she  had 
not  here ;  and,  in  short,  how  little  the  two 
palaces  were  like  each  other. 

The  P.  P.  C.  man  came  and  told  her  how 
mnch  was  the  rent  of  the  palace  for  a  day,  and 
she  paid  her  part  of  it.  It  occurred  to  her  that 
for  her  apartment  in  it,  and  the  frau's  and  the 
little  friulein,  she  paid  at  rather  higher  rates 


42  SYBIL    KNOX. 

than  she  had  paid  in  Italy  for  the  same  period 
in  the  larger  apartments  which  she  occupied  in 
a  larger  palace  there.  And  then  she  pleased 
herself  with  comparing  the  P.  P.  C.  man  with 
the  people  who  attend  to  the  daily  needs  of 
the  Italian  palace  ;  and  that  question  recurred, 
so  curious  to  all  travellers  just  returning  from 
Europe,  how  is  it  that  a  P.  P.  C.  man  does  not 
bid  good-bye,  but  is  the  person  to  welcome 
you,  perhaps  on  your  first  experience  of  palace 
life. 

The  company  was  a  day  company — that  is, 
it  consisted  mostly  of  women.  A  few  gray- 
whiskered  men  came  into  the  car,  before  it 
started,  and  kissed  the  lonely  daughters,  who 
were  to  go  forth  unescorted  and  alone  to  the 
journey  of  life.  Then  there  was  one  quartette 
who  were,  most  clearly,  a  bride  and  bride- 
groom, with  the  attendant  best  man  and  first 
bride-maid.  The  lavishness  of  flowers  showed 
this — the  lady's  absolutely  new  boots  showed 
it.  No  woman  except  a  bride  travels  in  boots 
fresh  from  the  shop.  If  these  signs  had  failed, 
it  would  have  been  certain  that  these  two 
young  people  had  been  only  just  now  married, 


SYBLL   K2TOX.  43 

because  the  husband  never  left  the  bride  on 
any  pretext.  He  feared  that  some  Sabine  rape 
would  capture  her  if  she  were  out  of  his  sight 
fora  moment,  and  would  take  her  to  some 
new-built  towers  of  some  unnamed  Rome. 

All  these  details  Mrs.  Knox  gradually 
worked  out  as  they  rode,  and  as  the  peerless 
view  of  the  Hudson,  more  beautiful  to  her  than 
ever,  unrolled  itself  before  her.  Xo,  the  news- 
boy could  not  tempt  her  with  his  books.  They 
were  of  names  unknown  to  her.  The  paper 
was  thick  with  lime  which  had  been  wrought 
into  the  pulp.  A  special  sort  of  paper,  very 
thick,  is  made  for  just  that  sort  of  literature 
where  it  is  supposed  that  you  want  most  for 
your  money,  and  also  supposed  that  yon  will 
not  see  that  salesman  again.  But  at  the  first. 
Mrs.  Knox  did  not  care  to  read. 

The  boy  offers  yon  books  first,  because  if  you 
take  a  book  it  costs  at  least  thirty-five  cents. 
He  offers  you  magazines  on  his  second  visit, 
because  yon  may  buy  Lend  a  Hand,  which 
will  cost  only  twenty  cents.  Not  till  his  third 
round  does  he  offer  you  Harper's  Weekly  or 
the  Bazar,  because  these  are  cheaper  stilL 


44  SYBIL    KNOX. 

She  did  buy  a  pretty  child's  book  for  the 
younger  of  her  companions.  She  found  in 
her  bag  a  copy  of  "Grimm's  Fairy  Tales,"  ele- 
gantly illustrated,  which  she  had  borrowed 
from  Mrs.  Lagrange's  house  for  just  this  emer- 
gency. The  news-boy,  changing  his  occupa- 
tion, now  became  the  purveyor  of  fruit  for  the 
palace,  and  Mrs.  Knox  bought  bananas  for  the 
amazed  German  mother  and  her  child,  who 
had  never  seen  such  fruit  before,  and  began  to 
believe  that  the  wonders  which  they  had  heard 
of,  incredulous,  were  all  likely  to  prove  true. 

Mrs.  Knox  threw  off  all  her  "things"  which 
could  be  dispensed  with.  Men  have  no  such 
extra  "things"  in  summer,  unless  the  eti- 
quettes permit  them  to  sit  in  their  shirt  sleeves, 
as  in  Western  cars  you  sometimes  do.  But 
women  always  have  some  extra,  which,  if  their 
balloon  were  sinking,  could  be  flung  away. 
The  air  was  hot,  but  not  so  hot  as  the  street- 
car in  New  York  had  been,  nor  as  Madison 
Avenue  had  been,  when  she  sat  at  the  team- 
ster's side. 

She  did  not  want  to  read  ;  yet  she  pleased 
herself  with  going  to  the  palace  library,  which 


SYBIL    KXOX.  45 

she  had  noticed  as  she  entered,  that  she  might 
see  what  was  provided  for  crowned  heads  on 
their  travels.  She  had  taken,  at-  random,  a 
volume  from  the  "Little  Classics,"  and  was 
just  returning  to  her  seat  with  it,  when  a  lady 
stepped  out  from  the  little  "  drawing-room," 
so  called,  and  raised  both  her  hands  :  "Sybil 
Furness — it  is  certainly  you!  or  Sybil  Knox, 
I  ought  to  say." 

The  traveller,  seeking  for  home — disap- 
pointed to  this  moment — felt  now  that  she  had 
found  it. 

"  My  dear  Jane,  is  it  really  you  ?  "  and  the 
two  kissed  each  other,  with  kissing  which  was 
real  kissing.  No  obtrusive  veil,  or  coy  cheek, 
but  the  kiss  of  four  lips  which  means  affec- 
tionate joy  of  meeting. 

A  seat  was  found  big  enough  for  both  in  the 
little  cabin,  where  were  Mrs.  Wildair  and  her 
daughter.  The  daughter,  after  she  had  been 
shown  to  Mrs.  Knox,  was  sent  to  occupy  her 
seat.  And  the  two  old  schoolmates,  who  had 
not  seen  each  other  for  ten  years — not  since 
they  left  Miss  Porter  at  Farmington,  with 
all  life  before  them— now  plunged  into  the 


46  SYBIL    KNOX. 

Odyssey  and  JEneids  of  their  adventures  and 
wanderings  since  those  days. 

The  joy  of  Sybil  Knox  at  the  meeting  was 
indescribable.  Till  now,  indeed,  she  had  not 
known  that  she  was  disappointed  in  her  ar- 
rival. But  slie  had  been  disappointed.  Some- 
thing had  weighed  on  her  which  she  would  not 
analyze.  The  truth  was  that,  though  she  had 
not  expected  to  be  interviewed,  and  had  not 
supposed  that  the  same  people  would  be  waiting 
on  the  pier  to  wave  handkerchiefs,  who  waved 
them  when  she  sailed — ah  !  in  other  days  in- 
deed ! — though  she  had  not  expected  this,  she 
had  thought  somebody  would  know  her.  But 
nobody  had  known  her,  and  she  had  known 
nobody.  Even  the  Lagranges'  servants  had 
been  new  people.  There  was  a  nice  girl,  in  old 
times,  at  one  particular  counter  at  Macy's,  but 
that  girl  had  gone. 

''Really,  my  dear  child,  I  have  spoken  to 
nobody  since  I  left  the  ship,  except  porters,  and 
tide-waiters,  and  shopkeepers,  and  the  people 
at  Arnold's  and  Macy's." 

"And  you  just  home  after  a  century! 
Well,  now  we  have  all  the  afternoon — you  are 


SYBIL    KXOX.  47 

going  to  Atherton,  of  course — and  we  shall  be 
together  all  the  way  to  the  Junction.  Poor, 
dear  child  !  you  shall  do  all  the  talking.  You 
know  I  never  say  a  word."  And  then  they 
laughed  at  the  old  joke,  for  Jane  was  the  most 
incorrigible  talker  of  her  year. 

She,  too,  had  married,  and  as  she  had  never 
seen  Sybil's  husband,  Sybil  had  never  seen 
hers.  He  was  a  prosperous  director  of  marble 
quarries,  not  a  hundred  miles  behind  Rutland. 
She  had  just  seen  her  sister  and  her  new  hus- 
band sail  for  Germany,  and  was  now  going 
home  to  preside  in  the  vacation  revels  of  the 
girls  whom  she  had  summoned  from  north,  and 
south,  and  east,  and  west.  "  I  have  to  bring 
them  together  to  wake  us  all  up.  We  should 
be  the  least  bit  rusty,  you  know,  if  every  sum- 
mer some  of  them  did  not  come  in  and  show 
us  the  last  sweet  thing  about  tennis.  John's 
brother  and  his  wife,  whom  you  will  like, 
always  have  a  party  of  young  people.  And  it 
helps  along  if  I  fill  up  the  old  house — one  of 
the  old  Yankee  palaces,  you  know — nine 
rooms  on  the  ground  floor  and  three  in  the  ell, 
and  the  whole  three  stories  high,  with  attics  in 


48  SYBIL    KNOX. 

the  gambrel.  No,  we  shall  not  be  crowded. 
I  do  wish  you  would  stop  a  week  and  see  how 
we  go  on." 

"  I  am  not  sure  but  I  had  better,"  said  Sybil 
Knox,  with  the  least  touch  of  sadness  this 
time.  "I  ought  to  learn  how.  You  know  I 
have  to  sweep  and  dust  mine.  I  have  to  drive 
out  the  ghosts,  and,  I  suppose,  to  change  the 
carpets.  I  do  not  know  that  I  shall  find  a  cur- 
tain to  the  windows.  I  find  a  letter  from  old 
Mary  Chittenden,  and  she  says  that  there  are 
potatoes  in  the  bins,  and  that  Micah  Straw 
does  not  know  but  what  perhaps  he  can  let  us 
have  milk.  So  I  am  sure  I  shall  not  starve. 
But  for  the  rest,  I  must  get  things  in 
order." 

"  What  fun !  "  cried  the  jubilant  and  enter- 
prising Jane  Wildair.  "I  wish  I  could  go 
over  with  yon.  We  will  drive  across  some  day 
and  help— it  is  only  nine  miles.  But  I  am  sure 
Mary  Chittenden  would  not  approve  of  me. 
My  Mary  Chittenden — the  womon  who  runs 
me — is  named  Tryphosa.  She  frowns  severely 
on  my  extravagances,  though  she  is  really  ten 
times  as  wasteful  as  I.  And  she  scolds  the 


SYBIL   KNOX.  49 

young  folks  all  the  time,  and  always  ends  in 
Jetting  them  have  their  own  way." 

"  Shall  I  feel  lonely,  Jane « " 

"No;  you  will  not.  Some  people  would; 
but  you  will  make  friends.  You  will  meet 
people  more  than  half-way  ;  that  is  all  they 
want.  Proud  as  Lucifer  is  every  man  and 
every  woman.  And  good  as  gold  is  every 
woman  and  every  man,  when  you  need  real 
friends.  Xo  ;  you  will  not  feel  alone." 

"But,  Jane,  everybody  says  that  I  shall 
be  killed  with  gossip  ;  everybody  says  that  I 
shall  have  to  talk  of  Mrs.  Green's  blue  ribbons, 
and  Mrs.  Black's  white  cow.  Now,  lam  not 
grand.  Least  of  all  am  I  'cultured.'  If  I 
thank  God  for  anything  it  is  that  I  was 
brought  up  by  people  who  did  not  know  what 
'culture'  was.  But  for  all  that  I  do  not 
want  to  talk  all  day  about  cows  and  ribbons — 
and,  in  general,  other  people's  affairs." 

She  saw,  before  her  sentence  was  half  done, 
that  she  had  struck  on  a  chord  whose  vibra- 
tions grated.  The  irrepressible  Jane  was,  for 
once,  repressed,  and  when  she  spoke  she 
spoke  slowly. 


50  SYBIL    KNOX. 

"You  have  hit  home,"  she  said.  "That  is 
the  danger  of  life,  where  five  hundred  people 
see  each  other,  and  do  not  often  see  any  one 
besides.  But,  my  dear  Sybil,  was  there  any 
act  of  Parliament  which  said  that  you  and  I 
should  not  meet  some  trials  ?  Is  it  not  your 
business,  as  it  certainly  is  mine,  highly  to 
resolve  that  people  shall  not  talk  about  black 
cows  and  white  ribbons  where  you  and  I  do  the 
listening  ?  I  know  I  have  made  this  the  law 
in  my  house  and  in  Lysander's.  And,  Sybil, 
the  hardest  people  to  bind  down  to  keep  the 
law,  are  these  gay  girls  from  New  York  who 
come  up  to  play  tennis  in  summer." 


CHAPTER  V. 

HOUSEKEEPING  proved  easier  than 
Sybil  Knox  bad  dared  to  hope.  Mary 
Chittenden  was  no  fool,  and  the  substantial  of 
life,  and  many  of  its  elegancies,  had  been  well 
provided  for.  She  fonnd  she  should  have 
enough  to  do  in  putting  things  on  a  "peace 
establishment,"  as  the  old  books  used  to  say. 
But.  if  she  had  had  any  fear  that  she  was  to 
be  starved,  or  in  any  way  physically  uncomfort- 
able, that  fear  soon  gave  way.  None  of  the 
neighbors  had  promised  any  more  than  Micah 
Straw  had  promised.  But  the  physical  sup- 
plies were,  in  fact,  ample.  And,  although  she 
had  no  Fulton  Market,  she  soon  found  that  in 
a  region  where  she  had  within  a  half-mile 
eggs,  trout,  poultry,  lamb  or  mutton,  pease 
and  beans,  she  was  not  going  to  die  of  famine. 
On  Saturday  her  brother  came  over,  with  all 
messages  and  offers  of  help  from  his  house- 
hold, at  the  mill  village  of  Bowdoin.  They 


52  SYBIL   KNOX. 

were  some  twenty  miles  from  her.  He  "gave 
her  points  "  as  to  a  thousand  matters  in  the  life 
she  was  resuming,  and  they  had  great  comfort 
together  in  going  back  over  old  memories. 

She  found,  to  her  grief,  that  the  old  meet- 
ing-house of  the  village  was  closed.  It  had 
been  voted  that  it  should  be  painted,  within 
and  without.  A  vacation  to  the  minister  had 
also  been  voted,  and  the  church  was  in  the 
hands  of  the  carpenters  and  painters.  But 
Sybil  said  she  must  go  somewhere  for  worship. 
And  it  was  easily  arranged  that  this  some- 
where should  be  at  the  new  meeting-house,  as 
it  had  been  called  for  twenty  years,  some  four 
miles  away,  at  the  Quarry  village. 

As  it  happened,  the  last  service  in  which  she 
had  taken  part  was  in  Notre  Dame  in  Paris. 
Her  party  had  sat  there  in  a  gallery  above  the 
chancel,  where  the  whole  movement  of  priests 
and  of  people  went  on  below  them,  and  the 
noble  music  of  the  ceremony  rolled  in  upon 
them  from  one  side,  without  their  seeing  choir 
or  organist.  Here,  at  the  Quarry  meeting- 
house, they  were,  and  they  felt  that  they  were, 
a  part  of  those  ministering  servants  of  the  Lord, 


SYBIL   K?fOX.  53 


who  were,  in  whatever  feeble  fashion,  trying 
to  join  with  angels  and  archangels,  Cherubim 
and  Seraphim,  in  His  praise.  "So  ranch 
gained,  at  least,"  Sybil  Knox  said  to  herself, 
ed  the  good  God,  as 


fromWe»        '< 

Prophet.    [mahogany 


.,  re 
la  *        -  -      ,  -desk  and 


al  todaj.,  re^™          •"«  to  thfa  ,-i,    '.nch  was  a 


la  the  K~ 
nniber!  ->e 

:^«  '  "B"**  «f  tli  the  rich 

-  -  - 

1  inS  roo£- 
rest.    The 

_ 
rich  tone  to 


or  aesthetic  pnrpose7thanau^I*pAnting  bnt  the 


52 


SYBIL   KNOX. 


were  some  twenty  miles  from  her.  He  "gave 
her  points  "  as  to  a  thousand  matters  in  the  life 
she  was  resuming,  and  they  had  TCfit  comfort 
together  in  going  back  over  oldj 

She  found,  to  her  grief, 
ing-house  of  the 
been  voted  that  it 
and  without,     A 
also  been 
hands  of 


^ik 


S?i«hS5K 


^/.S  ,  rflie 


^  VV\  \>/  >;vw§^ " 


noble 

them 

or  organistX 

house,  they 


priests 
nd  the 

rolled  in  upon 
their  seeing  choir 
the    Quarry   meeting- 
they felt  that  they  were, 


a  part  of  those  ministering  servants  of  the  Lord, 


SYBIL  KX OX.  53 

who  were,  in  whatever  feeble  fashion,  trying 
to  join  with  angels  and  archangels,  Cherubim 
and  Seraphim,  in  His  praise.  "So  much 
gained,  at  least,"  Sybil  Knor  said  to  herself, 
and  for  so  mnch  she  thanked  the  good  God.  as 
she  bent  in  sflent  prayer. 

For  the  place  itself  the  contrast  was  even 
more  distinct.  There  was  a  distinct  chancel, 
separated  by  a  rail  from  the  part  occupied  by 
the  congregation,,  and  carpeted,  as  their  part 
was  not.  It  was  one  step  higher  than  the  floor 
of  the  church.  Two  steps  higher,  in  a  semi- 
circular recess,  which  ran  farther  back  than 
the  rest  of  the  church,  stood  a.  mahogany 
pedestal,  shaped  like  the  drawings  of  a  Greek 
altar,  on  which  was  a  desk,  on  which  was  a 
largeBible.  This  was  both  reading-desk  and 
pulpit 

Hie  church  itself  was  ceiled  with  the  rich 
unpointed  pine  of  the  region  from  bottom  to 
top,  and  on  both  sides  of  the  sloping  roof, 
which  was  not  shut  off  from  the  rest  The 
various  colors  of  the  wood  gave  a  rich  tone  to 
the  interior,  far  more  effective,  for  architectural 
or  aesthetic  purpose,  than  any  painting  but  the 


54  SYBIL   KNOX. 

very  best  could  have  been.  But  the  native 
eagerness  for  colors  had  shown  itself  also. 
For  every  pane  of  the  large  windows  had  been 
masked,  so  to  speak,  by  pasting  over  the  glass 
some  tawdry  paper  print,  which,  in  crude 
colors,  represented  what  some  one,  who  had 
never  seen  a  stained  glass  window,  supposed 
such  a  window  to  be.  The  moisture  of  the  air 
had  detached  some  of  these  papers,  so  that 
they  hung  in  ragged  festoons  from  their  stays. 
But  most  of  them  remained  to  give  a  wretched 
suggestion  of  "dim  religious  light."  That 
there  might  be  something  for  children  to  look 
on  and  admire,  when  the  words  of  the  speaker 
did  not  interest  them,  twenty  or  thirty  very 
large  colored  prints  of  scenes  in  the  lives  of 
David  and  Solomon  were  nailed  upon  the 
walls.  The  decorations  of  Christmas  had 
triumphed  over  any  suggestions  of  Lent  which 
had  ever  been  heard  there,  and  the  nails  which 
held  these  pictures  were  still  hung  with  wreaths 
of  holly,  though  it  was  almost  summer. 

When  the  party  from  Atherton  entered  the 
church,  the  people  assembled  were  singing. 
This  was  not  as  part  of  the  regular  service,  but 


SYBIL   KXOX.  55 

as  a  sort  of  friendly  exercise  in  music  among 
themselves,  and  this  singing  of  one  and  another 
familiar  hymn  went  on  until  precisely  the  time 
of  service.  Then  the  leader  of  the  singing  laid 
down  his  book  and  walked  np  the  central  aisle, 
up  the  steps  to  the  higher  platform,  opened 
the  Bible,  and  marked  the  places  where  he 
to  read.  For  it  proved  that  he  was  the 


He  was  rather  awkward  in  movement.  His 
face  and  hands  were  those  of  a  man  a  good 
deal  exposed  to  the  weather.  His  dress  was 
of  simple  black,  his  necktie  was  black,  and 
there  was  nothing  in  all  his  costume  to  suggest 
any  difference  between  his  occupation  aud 
that  of  any  other  man  dressed  in  black  whom 
you  might  meet  in  a  shop  or  on  the  train. 
Mrs.  Knox  fancied  that  he  was  almost  aggres- 
sively "secular"  in  his  way  of  moving  his 
chair  when  he  sat  down,  and  of  throwing  his 
great-coat  on  another  chair.  But  here  she  was 
wrong.  He  had  never  associated  the  idea  of 
ritual  with  his  movements  at  or  near  the  pul- 
pit; indeed,  he  had  never  seen  any  one  who 
had.  Simply,  he  meant  to  do  what  was  to  be 


66  SYBIL   KNOX. 

done  before  the  service  began,  and  he  did  it  in 
what  was  the  most  natural  way. 

He  read  a  hymn—  the  congregation  found  it 
in  their  books  as  he  did  so,  and  rose.  When  a 
young  girl,  with  a  face  of  a  saint,  which  Mrs. 
Knox  thought  one  of  the  sweetest  she  ever  saw, 
walked  quietly  to  a  reed  organ  which  stood  in 
front  of  the  pews,  took  her  seat,  and  began  to 
play  the  tune.  Fortunately,  as  these  visitors 
thought,  the  girl  faced  the  whole  congregation, 
so  that  they  were  able  to  watch  that  sweet  face 
without  rudeness,  and  to  enjoy  the  shades  of 
expression  which  passed  over  it  as  she  tried, 
with  the  wretched  whine  of  the  reeds,  to  give 
some  dignity  to  Lowell  Mason's  music,  and 
Oliver  Holden's.  The  people  sang  promptly 
and  heartily.  Mrs.  Knox  joined  with  them, 
and  had,  by  this  time,  well  forgotten  Notre 
Dame.  She  knew  that  she  was  ordained  her- 
self to  certain  services  in  the  business  the  good 
God  has  in  hand,  and  it  was  a  comfort  to  her 
that  the  ceremonial  in  which  they  engaged 
recognized  her  ordination.  All  parties  stood 
while  they  sang  ;  then  all  sat  down  suddenly, 
and  bowed  their  heads  upon  their  hands,  rest- 


SYBIL   KXOX.  57 

ing  upon  the  seats  before  them,  but  no  one 
kneeled,  if.  indeed,  kneeling  had  been  physi- 
cally possible,  as  the  seats  were  arranged 
Mrs.  Knox  heard  no  invitation  to  pray,  bnt  the 
minister,  without  book  or  audible  invitation  to 
the  people,  addressed  "Almighty  God,  our 
Father  in  Heaven'"  :  and  in  words  at  first 
broken,  and  perhaps  a  little  disconnected,  came 
more  and  more  to  a  plea  with  God  that  He 
would  reveal  Himself  then  and  there,  and  the 
hope  that  they  who  were  addressing  Tfitn 
might  come  into  the  consciousness  of  such 
presence  of  His.  So  earnest  and  so  eager  did 
he  become  that  he  even  shouted  at  times,  and 
poor  Sybil  Knox  was  startled  from  her  devo- 
tion to  a  wish,  almost  angry,  that  the  man  was 
not  there.  Then  the  reality  of  his  tone  gave 
her  the  certainty  again  that  he  was  not  acting, 
or  pretending  to  anything  not  real,  and  she 
fell  back  more  humble  and  less  critical.  Still, 
as  she  said  afterward,  it  was  all  a  series  of 
surprises.  She  was  tossed  high,  or  she  sank 
low.  What  she  did  not  say  in  words  was  still 
true,  that  there  were  moments,  which  she 
could  not  count  nor  measure,  when  she  was 


58  SYBIL    KNOX. 

wholly  lost  in  her  certainty  of  our  Father's 
love. 

At  the  end  the  whole  congregation  joined, 
audibly,  with  the  minister  in  the  Lord's 
Prayer. 

At  once,  as  soon  as  he  had  said  "Amen,"  the 
minister  read  the  nineteenth  Psalm,  and  then 
a  lesson  from  one  of  the  Epistles,  and  at  once, 
again,  he  gave  out  a  hymn.  All  this  celerity 
of  movement  jarred  on  Sybil,  used  so  long  to 
the  gravities  of  European  rituals.  The  ques- 
tion even  passed  through  her  mind,  was  there 
a  horse  waiting  outside,  and  would  the  min- 
ister mount  and  ride  to  another  "station"  as 
soon  as  this  service  was  ended  ?  She  asked 
herself  if  she  had  not  heard  of  such  things  in 
the  lives  of  missionaries  or  other  pioneers. 
Here,  again,  she  was  quite  wrong.  This  was 
merely  the  indication,  in  an  affair  of  ritual,  of 
the  national  eagerness  to  get  on  and  not  to  lose 
time.  The  people  had  never  asked  their  min- 
isters to  hurry.  Nor  had  the  ministers,  in  any 
convention,  voted  that  they  would  take  as 
little  time  as  possible.  But  in  everything  that 
they  did  in  daily  life  the  habits  of  two  cen- 


SYBIL    K3TO»3L  59 

tones  had  required  haste.  The  distances  to 
be  travelled  were  large,  the  forests  to  be  hewn 
down  were  done,  tike  work  of  aD  sorts  to  be 
dove  was  !••>•••  Ami  two  centuries  of 
facing  the  duties  thus  inrohred  had  bred  in 
~  ••:•  : "  -r  i  n  1  n  i  ~. .  ~  ~  r  r  i  "  _-:  r  ~ '  _ ".  -  \-  '  '.'  . :'  .  :^'.- 
to  which  Mrs.  Knox  did  not  readily  adjust  h-er- 
self  after  the/or  */«ife  of  Italian  life. 

Why  they  sat  Mrs.  Knox  did  not  know,  nor 
did  any  one  else.  The  nerrons,  quick,  sad- 
looking  minister  opened  the  BOde  while  they 
sang,  to  find  his  text,  as  if  he  and  they  must 
not  waste  time.  So  soon  as  the  hymn  was 
ended  he  announced  it,  and  addressed  them. 

H  she  had  hoped,  from  die  simplicity  of  the 
net  of  the  arrangements,  dot  she  was  now  to 
hear  any  frank  statement  of  eternal  truth, 
made  with  the  freshness  and  rigor  which  had 
marked  the  addresses  of  the  "rally"  of  the 
week  before,  she  was  sadly  disappointed.  Up 
till  this  moment  the  minister  had  been  un- 
affected. He  had  read  the  Bible  respectfully, 
thoughtfully,  and  naturally.  He  had  some- 
the  seme,  she  had  thought,  but 


60  SYBIL    KNOX. 

he  was  seeking  for  sense,  and  what  be  had 
found  he  had  expressed.  He  was  not  like  a 
priest  she  had  once  heard,  who,  reading  from 
the  book  of  Numbers,  read,  "The  Lord  said 
MOREOVER,  unto  Moses,"  as  if  moreover  had 
been  the  oracle  addressed  to  the  great  leader. 
But  at  the  instant  "  the  sermon  "  began  all 
naturalness  ceased,  and  the  poor  man  entered 
on  a  function  which  he  believed  to  be  impor- 
tant, and  which  he  had  been  taught  by  some 
one  else  to  perform  in  a  purely  mechanical  and 
almost  unintelligent  way. 

"Did  you  see  me  writing?"  said  John 
Furness,  as  they  rode  home.  "I  know  the 
law  of  the  instrument  so  well  that,  so  soon  as 
we  came  to  the  word  *  Physical,'  I  knew  that 
the  next  head  would  be  '  Mental,'  and  the 
next  '  Spiritual.'  I  thought  it  would  amuse 
you  if  I  jotted  them  down  then  and  there  on 
the  paper.  Here  they  are.  Then  I  knew  the 
second  main  head  would  be  the  man's  duty  to 
himself,  and  here  it  is.  You  know  the  poor 
things  have  to  have  three  heads  always,  like 
Cerberus.  I  was  out  on  the  third  head.  If  I 
had  preached  the  sermon  I  would  have  said 


SYBIL    KXOX.  61 

something  about  (rod  Himself,  and  His  help  in 
carrying  on  this  affair.  But  he  made  that 
contrast  between  Death  and  life  instead. 
Still,  you  see  I  was  right  six  times  out  of  nine : 
I  mean  I  had  two  heads  right,  with  three  sub- 
divisions to  each.  Is  not  that  almost  up  to 
Cuvier!" 

She  said  that  she  had  been  comparing  the 
functional  character  of  the  whole  address  with 
the  vigor  and  life  of  the  speeches  she  remem- 
bered at  a  "rally  "  to  which,  in  old  political 
days,  her  husband  had  taken  her.  "  It  would 
be  hard  to  say  that  this  is  because  all  this 
is  specially  religious.  But  what  is  the  mat- 
ter?" 

"  Partly.  I  fancy,  that  this  is  full-dress,  if 
you  will  let  me  say  so.  After  all  is  said  I 
doubt  if  the  talk  of  a  grand  party  is  up  to  the 
talk  of  a  hotel-piazza  where  the  men  are  in 
their  shooting-jackets  and  the  women  in 
yachting-dresses.  At  church  everybody  is  on 
his  best  behavior,  and  if  you  will  have  com- 
pany manners,  why,  you  must  have  the  dull- 
ness and  dumbness  which  come  with  company 
manners,"  But  after  a  pause  he  added,  "  I  do 


62  SYBIL    KNOX. 

not  think  that  is  so  much  to  blame  as  the 
seminaries  and  the  newspapers." 

"  Seminaries  ?" 

"Yes.  I  never  forgot  what  Dr.  Wayland 
used  to  say  of  them.  '  They  give  us  excellent 
mediocrity.  We  no  longer  hear  "  them  is,"  in 
the  pulpit,  or  "  I  be,"  but,  on  the  other  hand, 
we  no  longer  hear  Edwards  or  Hopkins.'  ': 

"  It  would  be  better,  I  suppose,  if  we  did 
not  look  at  our  watches,  and  insist  on  thirty 
minutes  precisely,"  she  persisted.  "Thank 
you  ;  I  want  to  defend  this  good  fellow.  I  do 
not  know  his  name,  but  I  do  know  that  he 
speaks  my  language  in  my  country.  I  have 
heard  no  other  preacher  for  several  years  of 
whom  I  could  say  that.  And  I  shall  not  be- 
lieve that  the  man  is  insincere  who  offered  that 
prayer." 

"It  must  be  hard  to  make  your  doctrine 
come  out  precisely  within  so  many  seconds  of 
last  Sunday's  doctrine,"  said  he,  in  reply. 
"  St.  Paul  does  not  seem  to  have  measured  his 
letters  so." 


CHAPTER  YL       * 

•RS.  KXOX  had  not  expected  any  visitors 
-•AJL  Sunday,  nor  did  she  receive  any,  except 
two  old  friends  of  her  mother,  who  lived  hard 
by,  and  who  ran  in  each  to  see  -how  she  was 
getting  on."  Saturday  had  been  assigned  to 
her,  in  the  general  council  of  the  neighborhood, 
"to  get  to  rights,"  and  although  one  or  two 
old  family  friends  stopped  in  driving,  and  in- 
quired for  her  at  the  door,  she  had  had  no 
formal  visit*— no  visit  to  be  called  a  visit;  but 
her  brother  s.  She  had  opened  her  relations 
with  a  good  many  of  the  people  on  whom  she 
would  be  dependent  for  one  and  another  mat- 
ter in  the  day  s  supplies,  and  she  had  ex- 
changed greetings  wit  h  the  nearest  neighbors. 
She  did  not  herself  fed  in  the  least  "at  rights," 
or  at  home,  though  she  tried  to,  stffl  wrestling 
with  herself,  and,  be  it  said  seriously,  with 
prayer.  But,  alas!  every  reminiscence  of  the 
as  of  people  who  were 
m 


64  SYBIL    KNOX. 

world.  She  welcomed  her  brother,  when  he 
came  over  on  Saturday,  and  parted  with  him 
almost  in  tears  on  Monday  morning,  after  they 
had  both  risen  early,  and  she  had  given  him 
his  coffee  and  breakfast-bacon,  before  he  drove 
to  the  train.  Monday  began  for  her  at  half- 
past  six  o'clock  with  the  saddest  sense  of  lone- 
liness. Yes,  she  would  have  done  better  to 
fill  the  house  with  young  people,  as  Mrs. 
Wildair  had  done  with  hers.  Any  thing  better 
than  this  houseful  of  ghosts,  whom  she  almost 
heard  and  saw  even  in  the  daytime. 

But  she  need  not  have  feared  to  be  alone. 
She  was  on  her  knees  on  the  floor,  trying  to 
make  a  refractory  key  govern  a  rusty  lock, 
when  she  heard  a  step  on  the  piazza,  and  a 
knock  at  the  front  door.  But  the  knock  did 
did  not  wait  to  be  answered,  and  he  who 
knocked  came  immediately  into  the  room, 
entered  briskly,  and  with  that  air  of  confidence 
which  the  privileged  man  of  a  village  is  apt  to 
show. 

4 'So  glad  to  see  you  home,  so  glad  to  see 
you  home.  They  said  you  were  coming,  but  I 
didn't  believe  it  until  you  came," 


SYBIL   EXOX.  --••: 

It  was  impossible  for  Mrs.  Kcox  not  to  show 
mmnrt  cordiality  of  manner,  when  she  met  so 
much.  She  was  by  no  means  a  reserved  per- 
son, and  was  willing  to  accept  the  great  law  of 
social  older,  which  directs  us  to  go  a  little 
more  than  half  way.  One  should  singC  sharp, 
and  not  D  flat;  one  should  not  accept  the 
minor  tones  in  life  unless  there  be  some  risible 
and  pressing  reason.  She  did  not  offer  both 
hands  to  Horace  Fort,  bat  she  did  not  in  any 
way  snub  him.  She  thought  afterward  that 
she  should  hare  snubbed  him  a  little.  But 
one  cannot  snub  the  Samoset  or  Squantoof  the 
country,  where  one  is  a  little  afraid  at  land- 
ing, if  Samoset  or  Squanto  conies  forward  and 
says  "Welcome,  Englishmen!"  Horace  Fort 
bad  said,  "  Welcome,  O  thou  Italian,  who 
'fast  appeared  here  so  suddenly  from  Borne!7' 
And  the  Italian,  eager  to  register  herself  as  a 
Yermonter,  welcomed  him  cordially. 

"You  are  hard  at  work,  I  see— hard  at 
work.  Yon  win  be,  for  weeks  to  come.  It  is 
not  easy  to  translate  one's  self  from  continent 
to  continent.  I  hare  come  round  to  give  my 
help.  I  do  not  say  to  offer  it,  because  you  win 


SYBIL    KNOX. 

have  to  accept  it,  whether  you  mean  to  or  no. 
I  shall  just  look  out  and  see  how  things  are  in 
the  stable,  and  if  you  need  a  man  you  must 
call  me.  But  tell  me  how  they  are  on  the 
other  side.  Tell  me  how  you  left  your  nieces, 
and  why  they  are  not  with  you." 

And  so  they  sank  into  the  outside  and 
formal  discussion  of  the  journey.  She  ex- 
plained about  the  first  voyage,  and  the  return 
to  Queenstown,  and  the  second  voyage,  wish- 
ing all  the  time  that  Horace  Fort  would  make 
himself  of  use,  and  not  sit  and  use  up  her 
forenoon  and  her  unpacking.  Whether  her 
manner  showed  it  or  not,  after  a  lost  half-hour 
she  was  well  rid  of  him,  and  was  permitted  to 
return  to  her  knees  and  her  experiments  on 
the  key.  In  these  experiments  he  might  have 
helped  her,  but  in  the  volubility  of  his  offers 
of  assistance,  he  had  neglected  to  do  so. 

This  was,  however,  only  an  index,  or,  as  the 
children  say,  a  "taste-cake,"  of  what  was  to 
happen  all  through  the  morning.  Some  of  the 
visitors  who  came  with  offers  of  assistance 
rang  the  bell,  and  some  did  not.  Some  walked 
up  into  her  own  bedroom  without  being  an- 


SYBLL    KXOX.  67 

nouncecL  and  some  did  not.  It  was  quite 
dear  that  she  was  the  lion  of  the  neighborhood 
for  the  day.  Some  of  the  neighbors  wished  to 
domesticate  the  lion  and  make  her  a  useful 
member  of  society ;  some  of  them  wished  to 
see  the  lion,  as  they  might  hare  gone  to  the 
Zoological  Garden*.  And  thus,  with  one  mo- 
tive or  another,  seven  or  eight  people  of  the 
neighborhood  came  in.  One  or  two  were  old 
school  Mends  of  Mrs.  Knox.  One  or  two 
were  newcomers  in  the  Tillage,  who  did  not 
even  know  her  by  sight,  bat  who  wanted  to 
extend  hospitalities.  Monday  morning,  in  die 
duties  of  life,  was  not  a  convenient  morning 
for  the  Trats  ;  but  the  sense  of  the  town  had 
been  that  It  would  not  seem  kind  to  leave  Mrs. 
Knox  alone,  now  Sunday  had  gone  by.  without 
offers  of  assistance.  It  ought  to  be  said  in 
pj««in<r  that  eren  if  these  offers  did  annoy  her 
&  little  at  the  moment,  they  were  not  only  well 
meant  but  well  planned.  Almost  each  one  of 
them  was  accompanied  by  an  intimation  that 
ice  or  butter  or  bread  or  poultry  or  mflk  or 
eggs,  were  at  her  service  till  her  regular  sup- 
plies were  adjusted.  Or,  if  she  would  like  to 


68  SYBIL    KNOX. 

come  over  to  dine,  to  sup,  to  breakfast,  or  to 
sleep,  half  the  houses  in  the  village  were  at 
her  service. 

It  was  with  one  of  the  elder  caciques  of  the 
village— or  caciquesses,  if  there  be  female 
caciques — one  who,  to  all  appearance,  might 
have  been  there  when  Champlain  first  came 
up  the  lake  from  the  St.  Lawrence,  that  Mrs. 
Knox  was  holding  her  own  as  well  as  she 
might,  and  discussing  the  social  order  of  the 
years  which  had  intervened  since  she  left  her 
home,  when  Horace  Fort  reappeared,  after  his 
explorations  in  the  cellar,  in  the  stable,  in  the 
barns.  By  this  time  he  had  accepted  the  law 
of  a  summer  day,  and  made  himself  at  home 
in  his  duties,  so  far  that  he  had  thrown  off  his 
coat  and  left  it  upon  the  clothes-line  behind 
the  house.  He  had  in  his  hand  a  hammer  with 
which  he  had  been  driving  some  nails  in  the 
barn-chamber,  and  so  entered  into  the  best 
parlor,  where  Sybil  was  entertaining  her  guest. 
He  came  in  with  the  same  indifferent  habit  of 
one  at  home  which  had  annoyed  Mrs.  Knox 
on  his  first  appearance,  but,  to  give  him  his  due, 
he  was  wholly  unconscious  that  any  stranger 


SYBEL   J3TOX. 

was  there.  He  was  reall  y  trying  to  be  of  use, 
and,  as  his  habit  was,  lie  ingot  how  many 
years  had  passed  over  him.  sine*  he  and  Sybil 
Furaess  van  pupils  in  the  academy  together. 
"I  say,  Sybil,"  he  said,  "there  are  two 
out  in  the  back  window  in  the  bam- 

I  told  Heman.  that  when  he 
went  over  to  the  dossing,  he  might  take  the 
measure  and  bring  up  the  glass.  I  can  show 
him  how  to  set  it." 

He  had  advanced  as  far  as  this,,  in  the  eager- 
ness of  his  message,  before  he  saw  that  Mis. 
Edwards  was  glued  against  the  wall  behind  the 
door,  in  the  chair  which  she  had  selected  for 
herself.  Even  his  impertinence  was  a  little 
dashed,  white  Mrs,  Knox  herself  was  towering 
with  rage.  Rightly  or  not,  she  did  not  choose 
to  make  a  scene,  by  administering  to  him  any 
rebuke.  He  had  not  meant  any  offence ;  that 
was  clear  enough.  He  was  takingairs  upon  him- 
self in  managing  her  business  ;  *fc»fc  -was  Am- 
enough.  He  had  no  right  to  can  her  Sybil ; 
to  prove  that  would  be  easy.  But  she  cer- 
tainly did  not  mean  to  begin  her  occupation  of 

by  quarrelling  with 


70  SYBIL   KNOX. 

bors  upon  trifles.  She  saw  that  he  wanted  to 
get  out  of  Mrs.  Edwards' s  way  quite  as  quickly 
as  she  wanted  to  have  him,  so  she  simply 
said: 

"  Oh,  Mr.  Fort,  I  have  quite  as  much  as  I  can 
do  to  get  this  house  into  order.  Do  leave  the 
barn  and  stables  to  take  care  of  themselves.' ' 
And  so  she  dismissed  him. 

But  Mrs.  Edwards  had  taken  in,  or  thought 
she  had  taken  in,  the  whole  position  at  a 
glance.  If  nobody  else  in  the  village  recol- 
lected that  long  before  Sybil  Furness  had  ever 
seen  Judge  Knox,  Horace  Fort  used  to  take  her 
off  on  sleigh -rides  and  to  dancing- par  ties,  Mrs. 
Edwards  remembered  it.  Mrs.  Edwards  re- 
membered similar  things  of  Horace  Fort's 
mother  and  Sybil's  mother,  not  to  say  of  the 
grandmothers  and  great-grandmothers  of  both, 
and  so  she  departed  with  the  satisfaction  of 
having  made  a  great  observation— that  some- 
thing was  on  again  between  Mrs.  Knox  and 
Horace  Fort,  for  Horace  Fort  came  into  Mrs. 
Knox's  best  parlor  in  his  shirt-sleeves,  and  he 
called  her  "  Sybil"  when  he  did  so. 

Accordingly  Mrs.  Edwards  occupied  herself 


71 

the  rest  of  that  week  in  going  tram  one 
to  another,  in  the  Tillage  and  in  the 
mogbborfiood,  to  repeat  this  oteerratiaa,  with 

COiOP  9S  it  CEBXB6O.  CCO1D  pfff  UB9£DB2 JtlOtt«  €^T 

HHB  UDpvovcflMiits  wiooghl  by  .ocK1  IBCBK* 
i»j,  fiom  da j  to  day. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

IT  was  interesting  to  watch  the  delicate  signs 
of  the  curiosity  with  which  Bertha  Berlitz 
and  her  little  girl  regarded  their  new  home. 
Mrs.  Knox  had  been  a  good  deal  disappointed, 
as  they  made  the  land  of  Long  Island,  that 
neither  mother  nor  daughter  had  seemed  to 
care  anything  about  it.  She  had  herself  rushed 
from  point  to  point  of  the  vessel,  wherever  any 
one  saw  anything  or  said  he  saw  anything. 
But  these  two — a  female  Columbus,  with  her 
daughter,  if  only  Columbus  had  had  any  daugh- 
ter— were  wholly  indifferent.  It  seemed  as  if 
they  regarded  the  great  ship  as  much  more 
their  home  than  any  cloud-bank  on  the  hori- 
zon could  become. 

But  now  and  here  this  first  indifference  gave 
way,  slowly  and  coyly,  but  certainly.  There 
was  the  air  of  condescension  observable,  as 
Mr.  Lowell  says  so  well,  in  all  foreigners.  But 
for  all  that,  there  was  certainly  curiosity. 


XSY.KU.    K9OX.  73 

With  Fran  Berlitz  herself,  this  was  wholly 
second  to  that  eager  hope,  always  disappointed 
but  never  crushed,  that  every  man  whom  she 
aw  would  prove  to  be  her  lost  husband.  With 
the  little  girl,  there  was  the  full  sway  of  chil- 
dren's infinite  power  of  observation  and  eager- 
Bess  to  see  everything.  Once  at  the  Vermont 
home,  the  pigs  and  chickens  and  the  mysteries 
of  the  ^stable  and  the  barns  introduced  her  to 
this  "  brave  new  world  which  hath  such  won- 
ders  in  it."  In  a  long,  set  battle  with  the 
child's  mother,  Mrs.  Knox  frightened  her 
rather  than  persuaded  her.  She  told  her  that 
she  should  not  do  what  she  wanted  to  do — 
namely,  go  from  place  to  place  through 
America,  on  foot,  if  possible,  enquiring 
whether  any  one  had  seen  Gerhard  Berlite. 
As  fur  as  could  be  seen,  this  had  been  the 
plan— not  unlike  the  customs  of  mediaeval 
knighthood— with  which  the  Fran  had  sailed 
for  her  new  home.  She  was  not  deterred  from 
it  now,  by  any  of  the  arguments  which  Mrs. 
Knox  presented.  But  she  gave  way,  partly 
from  the  necessity  of  tilings,  partly  under  the 
sway  of  her  gratitude  to  one  who  had  been 


74  SYBIL    KNOX. 

more  than  kind  to  her  in  her  wretched  seasick- 
ness, and  partly  from  the  homage  which  she 
could  not  but  render  to  one  who  clearly  under- 
stood the  position  so  much  better  than  she  did. 
She  was  glad,  meanwhile,  to  be  occupied. 
Sybil  explained  to  the  other  women  of  her 
somewhat  miscellaneous  household,  that  the 
little  ghi  was  to  be  made  generally  useful ;  and 
thatFrau  Berlitz  herself  would  do  some  sewing 
which  would  be  necessary,  and  help  in  the 
washing,  while  they  were  finding  her  husband, 
and  while  she  was  learning  to  speak  English. 
A  person  who  is  to  help  in  the  washing  is 
always  popular  in  a  New  England  household. 
A  person  who  could  be  talked  about  in  her 
own  presence,  without  knowing  what  is  said,  is 
always  a  subject  of  interest;  and  so  in  a  day  Mrs. 
Knox  found,  to  her  satisfaction,  that  these  new 
feudal  retainers  of  hers  were  to  be  permitted 
to  remain  on  a  satisfactory  footing  in  the  estab- 
lishment. 

That  day  did  not  pass  without  her  beginning 
on  the  search  for  Gerhard  Berlitz — more  doubt- 
ful, not  to  say  more  difficult,  than  Ponce  de 
Leon's  search  for  the  Fountain  of  Life.  Judge 


SYBIL  KSOX.  75 

Kendrick's  advice  was  the  basis  of  the  whole 
line  of  operations. 

-  Rret  of  all,  she  wrote  to  Boston  for  the 
United  States  list  of  post-offices,  a  book  which 
every  postmaster  must  have,  and  which  is  a 
convenience,  be  it  observed,  in  any  private 
family.  With  less  difficulty  than  she  ex- 
pected, she  interested  Fran  Berlitz  in  this  cyclo- 
pedia of  geographical  knowledge.  She  showed 
her  the  alphabetical  list  of  post-offices.  She 
showed  to  her  excited  gaze  the  colnmn  which 
contains  the  names  of  Liberty,  liberty  Centre, 
liberty  Corners,  Liberty  Falls,  Liberty  Fur- 
nace, Liberty  Grove,  liberty  Hall,  liberty 
Hills,  Liberty  Mills,  liberty  Pole,  liberty 
Prairie,  liberty  Ridge,  liberty  Springs,  lib- 
erty Square,  liberty  Town,  and  libertyville. 
There  the  list  ceased,  and  the  one  modest  town 
of  "  library,"  in  Allegheny  County,  Pennsyl- 
vania, took  its  place. 

Mrs.  Knox  then  took  Fran  Berlitz  into  the 
hall,  where  was  a  large  map  of  the  United 
States,  somewhat  prehistorical,  but  large 
enough  for  the  purpose.  She  showed  to  the 
newly-created  American,  who  was  quite  intel- 


76  SYBIL    KNOX. 

ligent  enough  to  understand  a  map  and  its 
scale,  how  small  a  portion  of  the  map  they 
had  traversed  in  their  journey  from  New  York 
to  the  village  where  they  were.  Then,  with 
some  difficulty,  she  located  Ouachita  County, 
in  Arkansas,  and  told  her  that  one  of  the 
Libertys  was  there.  She  bade  her  imagine 
that  the  other  fifty-one  were  scattered  over  the 
whole  territory  at  distances  not  dissimilar  from 
that  which  parted  her  from  Ouachita.  She 
told  her,  for  the  hundredth  time,  that  they 
had  no  evidence  that  her  husband  was  in  either 
of  these.  She  explained  that  if  he  were,  or  if 
he  were  not,  he  could  be  found  out  better  by  the 
post-office  machinery  than  by  any  methods 
which  the  Frau  could  herself  pursue,  even  if 
she  had  seven-leagued  boots  to  travel  with. 
Then  as  an  earnest  of  her  convictions,  she  en- 
closed a  dollar  bill  in  a  letter  written  by  her- 
self in  German.  In  this  letter  she  told  Ger- 
hard where  his  wife  and  daughter  were.  She 
addressed  this  letter  simply  to  Mr.  Gerhard 
Berlitz,  Liberty,  put  a  stamp  on  it,  and  sent  it 
to  be  mailed  at  the  county  town.  She  did  not 
mail  it  at  her  own  village  office,  because  the 


SYBIL    KXOX.  77 

postmaster  there  would  have  sent  it  back  to 
her.  She  told  Frau  Berlitz  that  this  letter 
would  eventually  turn  up  at  Washington,  and 
that  there,  in  the  Dead  Letter  Office,  were  two 
or  three  accomplished  women,  whose  business 
it  would  be  to  try  one  Liberty  after  another  till 
they  secured  some  answer.  They  would  do 
this,  because  the  dollar  bill  made  this  a  "  val- 
uable" letter. 

Meanwhile,  however,  she  took  the  shorter 
course  of  addressing  herself  directly  to  the  de- 
partment or  bureau,  from  which  this  informa- 
tion was  to  come.  She  wrote  to  this  tracing 
bureau  in  the  Dead  Letter  Office,  and  threw 
herself  on  the  charity  and  kindness  of  the  in- 
telligent women  who  direct  it.  She  stated  her 
case  to  them.  She  told  them  of  the  valuable 
letter  which  she  had  started  on  its  way.  And 
she  asked  them  to  teach  her  how  to  go  to  work 
in  hunting  up  this  broken  straw,  which  had 
disappeared  for  the  last  twelve  months  from 
the  surface  of  the  ocean  of  American  life. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

A  WEEK  passed  in  such  cares  and  pleas- 
.jL-L  ures  as  belong  to  bringing  an  abandoned 
house  to  order.  It  had  its  joys  and  it  had  its 
griefs.  The  house  was  in  good  enough  repair. 
There  was  nothing  serious  for  James  Thor  to 
see  to  when,  in  answer  to  a  postal,  he  came 
over  from  Maiden  to  survey  the  place.  His 
grandfather  had  built  it  for  Mrs.  Knox's 
grandfather.  He  had  built  it  "  on  honor," 
probably  without  the  assistance  of  any  archi- 
tect. Still,  there  it  was — comfortable,  well- 
proportioned,  and  with  a  certain  harmony  and 
fitness  about  it  which  were  the  despair  of  the 
young  architects  who  came  on  summer  visits 
to  Atherton,  to  play  tennis,  to  catch  trout, 
and,  in  general,  to  enjoy  their  holiday.  The 
house  was  twice  as  large  as  any  one  would 
build  now  in  the  same  place.  Clearly,  there 
had  been  no  lack  of  timber,  "hard"  or 
•'soft."  There  were  endless  conveniences — 

78 


SYBIL   KNOX.  79 

some,  which  a  ship-captain  might  have  sug- 
gested. The  wainscot  of  the  parlors  was  per- 
fect, and  queer  little  arches  in  them  defined 
inexplicable  alcoves.  Sybil  Knox  was  more 
than  pleased  that  her  memories  had  not  de- 
ceived her.  The  house  was  wholly  nnlike  the 
palace  she  had  lived  in  in  Rome,  and  tliree 
times  as  comfortable. 

After  the  week,  and  after  Monday  and  Tues- 
day, she  passed  the  ordeal  of  inspection  by 
all  her  neighbors.  The  new  people,  in  gen- 
eral, had  not  thought  best  to  call.  The  old 
people,  as  has  been  said,  had  been  ready, 
even  prodigal,  in  their  offers  of  service,  and 
in  their  personal  visits.  By  "old  people"  no 
one  meant  that  these  people  were  aged.  Some 
of  them  were  much  younger  than  Mrs.  Knox. 
Some  of  the  "new  people"  were  much  older 
than  they.  The  old  people,  in  this  sense,  were 
those  who  descended  from  the  people  who 
came  to  Atherton  when  the  first  emigration 
was  made  from  Essex  and  Worcester  counties 
in  Massachusetts.  It  was  about  a  century  be- 
fore the  time  when  Sybil  Knox  returned  there. 
These  people  had  created  the  town.  In  later 


80  SYBIL    KNOX. 

days,  since  the  quarries  were  opened,  since 
the  railroad  was  built,  and  since  the  factories 
began,  other  people,  known  in  village  dialect 
as  the  new  people,  came  in.  They  were  just 
as  good  people,  and  as  grand  as  the  old  people. 
They  ranked  on  perfectly  equal  terms  with 
them  in  the  social  hierarchy.  But  they  had 
come  since  Sybil  Knox  left,  and  therefore 
none  of  them  made  these  first  visits  of  wel- 
come, excepting  Mrs.  Huntington,  who  had 
known  her  in  Rome  when  she  spent  Easter 
there. 

It  fell  to  the  lot  of  Mrs.  Carrigan  to  give  the 
party  in  which  Mrs.  Knox  was  to  be  intro- 
duced again  to  her  new  and  old  neighbors. 
Mrs.  Carrigan  was  one  of  the  "  old  people,"  and 
they  called  each  other  Sybil  and  Ellen  when 
they  met,  having,  indeed,  been  born  within 
six  months  of  each  other,  having  gone  for 
raspberries  and  blackberries  together,  having 
studied  their  lessons  from  the  same  primer, 
and  worked  their  way  along  through  life  side 
by  side,  until  almost  the  time  when  each  was 
married.  It  might  or  might  not  have  hap- 
pened that  Mrs.  Carrigan  would  have  had  the 


SYBIL  K2TOX.  81 

sewing-society  at  her  house  on  this  particular 
Wednesday.  But  she  was  a  person  who  could 
do  much  what  she  chose  with  the  sewing- 
society,  and  she  thought,  and  thought  rightly, 
that  a  meeting  of  that  body,  a  little  out  of 
time,  would  be  a  favorable  occasion  for  Sybil 
to  meet  new  and  old  friends. 

The  church  was  closed,  so  that  no  invitation 
could  be  given  from  the  pulpit,  and  they  thus 
lost  that  central  place  for  news,  which,  in  the 
arrangements  of  Xew  England,  frequently 
serves  a  convenient  purpose.  But  a  bended 
bow  was  sent  round  to  all  the  nearer  members 
of  the  sewing-society,  they  were  requested  to 
communicate  the  information  to  those  whom 
they  loved,  and  these  in  turn  communicated  it 
to  those  who  loved  them.  So.  in  fact,  nobody 
was  uninvited,  though  nobody  knew  how  any- 
body was  invited. 

The  sewing-society  always  met  at  two  in  the 
afternoon.  They  sewed  or  knit  or  wound  yarn 
until  six.  Then  a  high  tea  was  served.  In  the 
evening  somebody  read  a  paper,  and  by  eight 
or  nine  o'clock  the  people  went  home. 

The  day  proved  to  be  a  lovely  day  in  June. 


82  SYBIL    KNOX. 

Mrs.  Knox  sent  over  for  Ellen,  to  consult  her 
as  to  the  costume  in  which  she  should  appear. 
She  had  heard,  through  some  ill-natured 
friend,  that  she  would  find  it  impossible  to  suit 
the  neighborhood.  If  she  went  in  a  dress 
which  showed  any  state  it  would  be  said  by 
somebody,  or  so  she  was  told,  that  "Mrs. 
Knox  was  trying  to  show  off  her  grandeur  to 
poor  people."  If,  on  the  other  hand,  she  went 
attired  as  she  would  have  been  in  her  own 
house  of  an  afternoon,  it  would  be  said  that 
"Mrs.  Knox  didn't  think  that  Atherton  people 
were  worth  dressing  up  for." 

Mrs.  Carrigan  showed  a  little  displeasure  at 
Sybil  Knox's  question.  "My  dear,"  said  she, 
"  I  do  not  believe  that  we  are  any  bigger  fools 
than  people  are  in  Rome  or  in  Washington. 
Come  as  you  like." 

And  when  Mrs.  Knox  laid  out  upon  the  bed 
a  perfectly  new  dress  from  a  Parisian  dress- 
maker, of  a  thin,  white  woollen  stuff,  her 
hostess  said  it  would  do  perfectly  well.  She 
did  not  believe  any  one  would  think  it  was  too 
grand,  or  that  any  one  else  would  think  it  too 
simple.  She  was  sure  it  was  very  pretty,  and 


SYBIL 

die  wished  she  had  just  suchadress  herselt 
So  Mrs.  Knox  went  dad  in  the  nan's  Telling. 

As  it  happened,  nobody  else  was  dad  in 
nan's  Teffing.  Every  variety  of  costume 
showed  itself,  bat  hers  was  a  pretty  dress  and 
the  dressmaker  had  fitted  it  welL  and  Atherton 
was  by  no  means  above  rejoicing  in  an  oppor- 
tunity to  study  the  last  devices  of  Paris. 

Perhaps  not  a  single  person  in  the  room  un- 
derstood with  how  much  feeling  Sybil  Knox 
came  into  that  company.  Really,  she  felt 
that  she  was  on  trial,  that  Atherton  was  on 
trial  She  almost  felt  that  it  would  be  deter- 
mined before  six  hours  went  by  whether  she 
had  or  had  not  made  the  great  mistake  of 
her  life  is  coming  back  to  her  father's  home. 
In  truth,  she  overstated  all  this.  Any  such 
supposition  that  life  hinges  on  a  single  moment 
is  apt  to  be  morbid.  In  truth,  if.  after  six 
months,  she  had  found  that  her  experiment 
was  an  unfortunate  one.  there  was  no  act  of 
Parliament  or  of  Congress  prohibiting  her  from 
going  away  to  the  Samoa  n  Islands,  or  to  Yoko- 
hama, or  to  Timbuctoo.  or  to  Paris,  or  to  any 
other  capita]  But  she  was  still  so  young  that 


84  SYBIL    K]STOX. 

she  had  still  a  great  deal  of  that  gospel  taught 
in  poor  novels,  which  makes  people  think  that 
a  single  decision  generally  determines  abso- 
lutely the  conditions  of  their  lives. 

It  was  delightful  to  meet  with  the  "old 
people."  Some  of  them  were  as  cross  as  they 
were  in  the  old  days,  but,  on  the  whole,  most 
of  them  were  more  good-natured  even  than  she 
had  expected.  Some  of  them  were  very  shy  ; 
some  of  them  were  terribly  undemonstrative, 
and  managed  to  greet  her  as  if  she  had  been 
away  from  church  for  a  single  Sunday  ;  some 
were  very  proud,  and  were  afraid  to  express  the 
interest  that  they  felt  in  the  arrival  of  a  person 
who  had  not  been  in  America  for  ten  years ; 
some  of  them  gushed,  alas,  for  in  all  circles 
there  are  a  few  people  who  will  gush.  But, 
on  the  whole,  Sybil  Knox  found  herself  well 
received.  She  was  well  pleased  with  herself 
that  she  remembered  so  many  as  she  did.  In 
the  cases  of  her  worst  mistakes  they  were 
made  with  persons  who  were  good-natured, 
and  had  not  expected  their  personality  to 
assert  itself  absolutely  in  all  conditions. 

Then,  for  the  "new  people,"    Sybil  Knox 


SYBIL    K3TOX-  f-f 

had  just  enough  of  the  pride  of  being  herself 
one  of  the  "old  people"  to  get  along  Yery 
well  with  them.  She  did  not  know  the  dis- 
tinctions which  they  brought  with  them  from 
their  old  homes,  she  did  not  know  who  their 
fathers  and  mothers  were,  she  did  not  know 
whose  husbands  had  been  to  college,  and  she 
did  not  care.  She  took,  unconsciously— and 
perhaps  it  was  as  well  that  she  did — the  posi- 
tion of  being  one  of  the  old  people,  and  found 
herself,  somewhat  to  her  amusement,  welcom- 
ing to  the  town  persons  who  knew  it  a  great 
deal  better  than  she  did.  It  was  impossible 
for  her,  after  a  little,  not  to  feel  that  she  was 
quite  at  heoie,  and  that  she  had  a  certain  duty 
about  making  Mrs.  A.  or  Mrs.  B.  or  Mrs.  C.  un- 
derstand Atherton  as  well  as  she  did. 

As  it  happened  again,  they  got  launched 
upon  a  discussion  of  this  matter  of  gossip, 
which  had  been  forced  upon  her,  as  the  reader 
knows,  more  than  once  as  she  was  considering 
her  plan  of  returning  to  her  father*  s  house. 
The  worst  threat  which  had  been  made  was 
Oat  she  would  find  the  littleness  of  Tillage  life 
absolutely  insufferable.  She  had  boldly  said 


86  SYBIL   KNOX. 

once  and  again  that  she  could  not  hear  worse 
gossip  than  she  had  heard  in  palaces  in  Rome, 
and  then  she  had  been  told  once  and  again 
that  she  must  not  say  so  till  she  had  tried  it. 
She  had  been  told  that  she  could  not  tell  how 
well  she  could  stand  it  till  she  had  been  ex- 
posed to  this  sort  of  mosquito-bite  day  in  and 
out,  week  in  and  out,  month  in  and  out,  for 
year  after  year.  This  thing  had  been  said  to 
her  with  so  much  earnestness,  that  she  was 
well  aware  that  she  had  become  morbid  about 
it,  and  of  course  she  had  read  enough  about 
the  necessary  relation  between  tea  and  gossip 
to  suppose  that,  at  a  great  tea-party  like  this, 
she  and  the  mosquitoes  would  be  in  the  closest 
conceivable  relations.  Whoever  heard  of  a 
sewing-circle  that  was  not  a  nest  of  gossipers  ? 
She  reported  for  duty,  and  had  her  choice 
given  her  between  work  on  flannel  and  work  on 
cotton,  work  with  knitting-needles  and  work 
at  crochet.  She  made  her  selection  and  joined 
herself  to  a  little  circle  of  old  school-friends 
who  sat  around  a  little  straw  table,  on  which 
were  their  work-boxes  and  other  bits  of 
machinery.  There  were  perhaps  half  a  dozen 


SYBIL    KXOX.  87 

such  groups,  in  different  parts  of  the  large 
parlor  in  which  they  were,  while  some  of  the 
young  people  were  ont  on  the  piazzas,  and 
others  were  congregated  in  a  room  on  the 
other  side  of  the  entry.  The  whole  party  con- 
sisted  of  fifty  or  sixty  people,  of  all  ages  from 
•fariMMi  to  six-and-eighty. 

Sybil  and  her  friends  were  soon  talking  of 
just  the  things  that  they  were  talking  of 
before  she  was  married,  and  she  fairly  forgot 
the  terrors  with  which  she  had  gone  into  the 
house,  as  she  found  that  the  talk  of  fire  or  six 
old  school-mates  was  very  much  the  same 
when  they  were  twenty-six  years  old  as  when 
they  were  seventeen.  More  was  said  about 
babies  than  would  hare  been  said  then,  but 
there  was  the  same  comradeship,  there  was 
that  pleasantness  which  always  comes  where 
people  use  their  first  names  in  talk,  and  there 
was  no  lack  of  subjects  for  discussion. 

All  of  a  sudden,  however,  she  heard  the 
sharp  cling  of  a  bell,  and  then  a  burst  of 
laughter  through  the  whole  room.  She  looked 
up  with  surprise,  and  the  friends  around  her 
laughed  perhaps  more  heartily  than  any  one 


88  SYBIL    KNOX. 

else,  when  they  saw  how  little  she  understood 
what  they  were  laughing  at.  Then  it  was 
explained  to  her. 

It  proved  that  two  or  three  years  before,  at 
some  season  when  it  had  been  necessary  to 
revive  the  sewing-society  from  some  gulf  into 
which  it  had  fallen ;  on  occasion  of  a  new  or- 
ganization and  a  new  constitution,  the  most 
stringent  rules  had  been  adopted  for  the  check 
of  this  same  gossiping  of  which  Sybil  Knox 
had  been  forewarned.  It  had  been  determined 
in  solemn  conclave  that,  whatever  people 
talked  about  anywhere  else,  at  the  sewing- 
society  their  conversation  must  be  restricted. 
It  had  been  voted  that  no  person  should  say 
anything  to  the  disadvantage  of  any  person  in 
that  county,  while  the  society  was  engaged  at 
its  monthly  meeting.  If  any  person  did  say 
anything  to  the  disadvantage  of  another  person 
in  the  county,  that  person  was  to  be  fined  five 
cents,  to  go  toward  the  purchasing  fund  of  the 
society.  For  the  collection  of  these  fines  there 
were  owned  by  the  society  fifteen  little  money- 
boxes made  in  imitation  of  barrels.  These 
boxes  are  generally  used  for  missionary  funds, 


SYBIL   EffOX.  89 

but  in  the  present  case  they  were  used  simply 
for  gossip-fines.  There  was  no  judge  or  jury 
who  awarded  these  fines ;  the  conscience  of  the 
offender  was  relied  upon,  if  her  attention  was 
fairly  called  to  the  question.  So  soon  as  she 
had  decided  against  herself  she  must  rise  and 
walk  to  the  nearest  t>ox  and  put  her  five  cents 
in,  and  it  was  said  that  no  person  ever  went 
to  the  society  without  a  few  nickels  in  her 
pocket  in  case  she  should  transgress  the  rule, 
which  was  now  one  of  the  fundamental  rules 
of  the  constitution.  In  the  present  case  it 
proved  that  a  certain  pretty  Blanche  Wilder- 
spin  had  been  the  culprit.  She  was  one  of  those 
jolly,  bright  girls,  universal  favorites,  because 
they  live  with  all  their  might,  and  are  not 
thinking  of  themselves.  Her  exuberant  glee 
had  run  away  with  her. 

'*  You  never  heard  of  such  things,  and  you 
never  saw  such  a  party — or  such  a  set  of 
parties.  Why,  the  President  of  the  Grand 
Panjandrum  was  there,  and  the  fireman  on  our 
train  was  there,  and  I  saw  a  very  nice  black 
man,  who  was  either  a  waiter  without  an 
apron  or  the  night  porter  on  the  Xew  York 


90  SYBIL    KNOX. 

train.  And  just  as  they  were  all  wondering 
whether  they  would  have  'a  few  remarks'  on 
the  book  of  Ezra,  or  would  let  the  Grand 
Panjandrum  waltz  with  poor  me,  in  came  Lady 
Spitzka,  I  call  her — she  is  the  wife  of  the  Arcade 
man  or  of  the  Howe  Railroad  man,  I  do  not 
know  which.  She  had  diamonds  on  her  hands 
and  diamonds  in  her  ears  and  diamonds  on  her 
neck  and  diamonds  on  her  breast,  and  where 
there  were  no  diamonds  there  was  onyx  and 
jasper  and  chalcedony,  and  all  the  beautiful 
things  in  the  book  of  Revelation. 

"  I  really  thought  the  Four  Beasts  would 
come  in  next.  Oh  !  we  were  very  swell,  I  tell 
you.  I  saw  in  two  seconds  that  I  had  no 
chance  of  waltzing  with  the  Grand  Panjan- 
drum. He  left  me  with  his  wife  to  pay  his 
court  to  the  Lady  of  Golconda,  and  he 
said: 

"  *  I  am  so  glad  you  came.  It  is  a  pleasant 
evening.' 

"  'Wall,  yes,'  she  said.  'I  says  to  dad — you 
know  the  boys  calls  him  dad — says  I,  "Dad, 
et's  not  goin'  to  rain,"  says  I,' 

And  when  the  bright  story-teller  had  come 


SYBIL  KXOX,  91 

as  far  as  this,  she  saw  a  twinkle  in  Holdah 
Wadsworth's  eyes,  and  she  stopped  herself. 

"Pore gossip,"  she  said,  "and  in  the  county, 
too.*7  So  was  it  that  she  resolutely  stopped 
the  story.  "  I  had  better  bite  my  tongue  out 
and  be  well  done  with  it,"  And  then,  with  a 
good  stage  walk,  she  crossed  the  room,  put  a 
nickel  in  the  nearest  barrel,  and  struck  the 
signal  bell. 

As  she  came  back  to  her  seat  she  said, 
"Jane,  what  was  that  you  were  telling  us  about 
cumuli  1 "  *  And  all  the  girls  laughed  again, 

Some  of  this  was  explained  to  Mrs.  Knox. 
and  for  the  rest  she  guessed  it  out.  "  The 
rule  works  well  just  now/*  said  Mrs.  Carrigan, 
"  and  will  till  we  forget  it.  It  makes  us  gfre 
a  little  too  much  time  to  analyzing  talk,  and 
finding  out  what  gossip  is." 

"As  I  told  you,s?  said  Mrs,  Knox,  4i  CTery 
human  being  warned  me  against  the  terrors  of 
it." 

"  I  do  not  think  they  talked  much  gossip 
when  they  came  to  sew  for  the  soldiers." 

"Ifo,"  said  Jane  Grey,  shuddering.  "Some 
body  sat  and  read  about  capital  operations, 


92  SYBIL    KNOX. 

and  the  need  of  ether,  and  the  terrors  of  the 
dead  line." 

"Well,"  said  Mrs.  Carrigan,  "  I  do  not 
think  they  talk  gossip  at  the  Chautauqua 
Circle." 

"No,  indeed.  You  know  Dr.  Primrose's 
story.  An  excellent  old  lady  took  him  aside 
for  a  private  conference.  Dear  old  man,  he 
thought  she  was  anxious  about  the  state  of 
her  soul.  When  they  were  alone  she  said, 
'Doctor,  what  do  you  think  was  the  most 
important  result  produced  in  Europe  by  the 
capture  of  Constantinople  by  the  Turks  2 '  " 


CHAPTER  IX. 

LET  us  hope  that  the  reader  has  not  for- 
gotten Mr.  John  Coudert,  who  talked 
quite  seriously  with  Mrs.  Sybil  Knox  in  that 
other  palace  in  Rome  ;  for  John  Coudert  had 
not  forgotten  Mrs.  Knox.  and,  when  her  life  in 
Europe  was  over,  it  was  not  very  long  before 
he  found  that  his  business  in  Europe  was  over 
for  the  time.  Men  like  him  do  not  count  the 
passage  across  as  the  obstruction  which  it 
seems  to  gentle  people  like  this  reader,  who 
has  never  tried  the  experiment,  or  tried  it  but 
twice,  and  with  a  certain  difficulty.  John 
Coudert  readily  persuaded  himself  that  it  was 
necessary  that  he  should  be  in  America  again, 
as  he  had  before  persuaded  himself  that  it 
was  necessary  that  he  should  be  in  Rome. 
But  he  was  not  a  fool,  and,  having  at  heart  a 
matter  which  was  lifelong,  he  did  not  believe 
that  he  could  achieve  his  purpose  by  any  sud- 
den dash.  He  had  not  any  very  high  estimate 


94  SYBIL    KXOX. 

of  his  own  value  ;  had  he  been  more  conceited 
he  would  have  been  more  rash.  Not  thinking 
of  himself  more  highly  than  he  ought  to  think, 
he  did  not,  at  the  moment  of  his  arrival  in  New 
York,  follow  Mrs.  Knox  to  Atherton  to  ingra- 
tiate himself  with  her  in  the  fancies  or  occupa- 
tion of  summer  life.  Indeed,  he  had  matters 
of  importance  to  attend  to  in  America ;  he 
was  glad  to  be  on  the  same  side  of  the  ocean 
with  a  person  of  whom  he  thought  so  often, 
and  he  knew  that  the  chances  were  better  that 
he  should  hear  of  that  person  in  America,  than 
if  he  must  be  looking  out  for  her  name  in  the 
columns  of  Galignani's,  or  must  be  leading  up 
to  Vermont  and  Atherton  in  the  conversation 
of  the  Beau  Rivage. 

Fortune  favors  the  judicious.  On  the  first 
morning  after  his  landing  it  was  his  business 
to  go  to  the  New  York  office  of  Judge  Ken- 
drick,  whose  promptness  we  saw  in  that  matter 
of  crossing  the  ocean.  John  Coudert  was  to  go 
at  once  to  the  West,  to  get  what  a  good  na- 
tional phrase  calls  "the  bottom  facts"  with 
regard  to  a  certain  railroad  corporation,  which 
either  had  been  "wrecked,"  would  be 


SYBIL   KXOX.  95 

"wrecked,"  or  might  be  "wrecked,"  to  meet 
the  plans  of  the  avarice  of  a  certain  local  mag- 
nate. John  Coudert  was  the  trustee  of  many 
people  whose  incomes  depended  on  the  suc- 
cess of  this  railroad  and  the  steadiness  of  its 
business,  and  he  did  not  propose  to  see  their 
property  ruined— or,  indeed,  his  own,  which 
was  in  the  same  securities — for  want  of  some 
personal  information  better  than  what  he 
could  obtain  by  the  reports  which  were  per- 
mitted *o  be  printed  for  the  benefit  of  the 
stock  market.  Judge  Kendrick  had  been  an 
old  personal  friend,  and  often  his  adviser  in 
business  affairs,  and  Coudert  therefore  went 
up  to  ask  him  how  the  truth  was  to  be  found 
in  the  matter  of  the  wreckage,  and  if  there 
were  anything  that  an  honest  man  could  do,  in 
order  that  the  ruin  which  was  so  coolly  pro- 
posed might  be  averted. 

Perhaps  it  is  as  well  to  stop  for  a  moment 
to  tell  the  unwary  reader  what  it  is  to  wreck  a 
railroad.  It  by  no  means  supposes  that  the 
wrecker  is  going  out  with  heavy  sleepers  or 
stones  to  lay  them  upon  the  track  and  throw  a 
train  into  the  abyss.  This  is  to  wreck  a  train. 


96  SYBIL   KNOX. 

but  not  to  wreck  a  railway,  which  crime,  for 
dastardly  meanness,  is,  perhaps,  the  more 
atrocious  of  the  two.  The  rascal  who  proposes 
to  wreck  a  railway  secures  for  himself  in  its 
management  a  position  so  far  confidential  that 
his  word  is  relied  upon,  and  that  all  men  who 
have  anything  to  do  with  it  suppose  that  he  is 
managing  it  for  the  best.  He  pretends  to  man- 
age it  for  the  best.  lie  has  a  certain  flamboy- 
ant way  of  doing  business,  as  if  he  were  thor- 
oughly skilled  in  such  affairs,  and  were  going 
to  lift  this  particular  road  into  dignity  and 
success  which  it  had  never  attained  before. 
But  meanwhile  he  takes  his  own  measures  so 
that  this  probable  success  shall  not  be  gained. 
It  is  quite  in  his  power,  from  his  position  in 
the  management,  to  see  that  freight  does  not 
go  over  the  road  which  it  should  go  over,  that 
passengers  do  not  go  over  it  who  should  go ; 
it  is  even  in  his  power  to  see  that  the  returns 
of  receipts  are  not  properly  made  at  headquar- 
ters, and,  indeed,  when  the  time  comes  for  a 
semi-annual  or  an  annual  report,  there  are  a 
thousand  ways  in  which  such  a  report  can  be 
made,  and  it  is  in  his  power  so  to  bring  for- 


SYBIL   KXOX.  97 

ward  the  figures  that,  to  the  horror  of  all 
people  concerned,  it  shall  appear  that  the  road 
is  running  backward.  Perhaps  his  whole  ob- 
ject will  be  attained  if  the  stock  falls  several 
points  in  the  market ;  he  may  be  satisfied  by 
buying  in  when  the  stock  is  low,  then  by  pub- 
lishing another  set  of  reports,  and  carrying 
out  such  an  exaggerated  statement  of  its 
value,  that,  at  the  end  of  a  few  weeks, 
he  can  sell  the  same  stock  at  a  large  advance. 
Fortunate,  indeed,  for  the  people  who  have 
placed  tbeir  funds  in  that  railroad,  if  he 
is  satisfied  with  such  enterprises  as  this. 
But  perhaps  he  seeks  larger  game.  Per- 
haps he  is  determined  that  he  will  himself 
become  the  manager  of  ^this  whole  property, 
and  is  not  satisfied  until  he  have  made  the 
property  bankrupt  and  compelled  somebody, 
perhaps  the  indignant  public,  to  ask  that  it  all 
may  be  transferred  into  the  hands  of  a  receiver 
who  shall  carry  it  on  where  the  stockholders 
have  failed.  In  this  case  all  such  .people  as 
those  whom  John  Coudert  represented,  who 
have  placed  their  money  in  the  railroad  in  good 
faith,  find  that  they  have  lost  everything  which 


SYBIL    KNOX. 

they  had.  But  the  man  who  has  wrecked  the 
railroad  for  thme  takes  an  early  occasion  to  be 
present  when  this  worthless  property  is  sold 
under  the  hammer,  becomes  the  proprietor  of 
what  is  called  a  controlling  interest  in  some  new 
concern,  and  just  as  likely  as  not,  he  is  praised 
for  being  the  intelligent  and  active  manager 
who  knew  how  to  take  care  of  a  ruined  prop- 
erty and  carry  it  forward  to  success.  It  was 
precisely  one  of  these  schemes  by  which  an 
honest,  well-to-do  railroad  was  to  be  wrecked 
for  the  benefit  of  a  sharper,  that  John  Cou- 
dert  had  determined  to  counteract  if  he  could. 
That  he  might  counteract  it  he  had  gone  in  to 
see  his  friend,  Judge  Kendrick. 

Judge  Kendrick  still  had  an  office  in  New 
York,  though  his  legal  residence  was  in  Wis- 
consin. He  heard  his  friend's  story  with  even 
more  interest  than  John  Coudert  expected. 
As  soon  as  the  story  was  done  he  said  in  reply : 
"  I  am  more  interested  in  this  than  you  think, 
for  a  near  friend  of  ours,  I  have  a  right  to  call 
her  now— she  crossed  the  ocean  with  us — has  a 
large  investment  in  this  Cattaraugus  and  Ope- 
lousas.  It  is  only  three  days  since  I  found 


SYBIL   KXOX.  99 

this  nastiness  was  brewing,  and  I  have  been 
wondering  what  could  be  done  about  it.  I 
shall  be  glad  to  help  to  the  very  last,  and  I 
can  call  upon  Robert  and  Horace,  and  our  old 
friends,  and  Flanders  will  be  interested  as  well. 
But  what  we  must  have  is  a  reliable  and  decent 
person — just  such  a  person  as  yourself — to  go 
out  to  Franklin,  place  himself  at  the  centre  of 
affairs,  and  find  out  what  is  what,  that  we  may 
know  what  we  are  to  do.?? 

Coudert,  of  course,  was  pleased  to  find  he 
had  so  vigorous  an  ally*  and  asked,  not  un- 
naturally, who  was  the  travelling  friend.  And 
it  required  more  than  his  old  steadfastness  of 
training  to  keep  the  blood  from  flashing  into 
his  face,  when  Judge  Kendrick  said  that  this 
innocent  shareholder,  who  was  to  be  ruined, 
was  no  other  person  than  our  friend  Mrs. 
Rnox.  Xaturally  enough,  he  told  the  story 
of  their  adventure,  told  how  pluckily  she 
took  her  place  with  the  second  class,  and  then 
spoke  of  the  romance  of  the  German  woman, 
her  child,  and  the  lost  husband. 

To  his  surprise,  now.  John  Coudert  took 
much  more  interest  in  this  detail  than  he  could 


100  SYBIL    KNOX. 

have  imagined  possible  ;  but  then,  Coudert 
was  always  looking  out  for  an  adventure.  He 
saw  at  once  that  the  fortunes  of  the  Berlitzes 
were  of  much  more  interest  for  the  moment 
than  was  the  danger  of  the  C.  &  O.  He  told 
the  story  in  the  evening  to  his  wife  as  an  illus- 
tration of  how  a  man  like  Coudert  found 
romance  in  everything,  and  wanted  to  push  an 
adventure  to  the  end. 

Condert  was  not  satisfied  till  he  knew  every- 
thing that  there  was  to  know  about  the  Ber- 
litz family.  In  fact,  Judge  Kendrick  knew 
this  detail  quite  as  well  as  he  cared  to,  for  he 
had  himself  been  so  much  interested  in  the 
matter  that  he  had  copied  all  the  names  npon 
his  own  note-book,  and  had  made  such  in- 
quiries as  occurred  to  an  ordinary  working 
lawyer  as  being  enough  to  make.  That  is  to 
say,  he  had  put  into  the  Allgemeine  Zeitunr] 
an  advertisement  saying  that  if  Gerhard  Berlitz 
would  inquire  at  his  office  he  would  hear  of 
something  to  his  advantage.  His  own  office 
clerks  wished  that  Gerhard  Berlitz  had  never 
been  born,  so  many  of  that  name  had  already 
reported,  expecting  to  receive  ingots  of  gold, 


SYBIL    KXOX.  101 

who  had  no  wives  in  other  conntries,  and  no 
daughters,  and  who  were  mnch  disgusted  when 
they  learned  that  all  that  was  to  their  advan- 
tage was  the  arrival  of  a  penniless  woman 
with  her  child.  But  John  Condert  was  raven- 
ous for  details.  He  heard  all  these  stories  of 
failure  with  ntter  indifference.  He  laughed  at 
Kendrick  for  not  having  gone  to  work  more 
sensibly.  He  devoted  a  couple  of  pages  of  his 
own  note-book  to  the  facts  which  were  known. 
He  said  he  did  not  doubt  that  he  should 
stumble  upon  the  proper  Liberty,  and  that  he 
should  bring  home  the  lost  husband  in  triumph. 

"  If  only  '  the  other  woman '  has  not  carried 
him  off  and  changed  his  name." 

In  reply  to  this  cynical  sneer  John  Coudert 
only  laughed.  He  said. that  Kendrick  was 
always  a  pessimist,  and  wanted  to  have  the 
worst  come  out.  "I,  on  the  other  hand,  am 
an  optimist.  I  believe  in  my  own  race. 
Especially  I  believe  in  my  own  sex.  And  yon 
shall  see  that  I  will  bring  back  this  honest 
workman — not  rich,  indeed  ;  I  do  not  expect 
that — but  virtuous,  and  happy  in  the  prospect 
of  seeing  his  Bertha  and  his  child." 


102  SYBIL   KNOX. 

And  so  they  parted,  John  Coudert  more 
willing  than  ever  to  give  up  the  present  plea- 
sure of  a  visit  to  Atherton,  because  lie  had 
now  the  chance  which  might  show  to  Sybil 
Knox  that  he  was  more  than  she  had  ever  seen 
him.  He  did  not  suppose  he  had  been  very 
successful  in  the  tournaments  of  the  piazza  at 
the  Beau  Bivage,  or  in  the  conversations,  how- 
ever serious,  of  one  or  another  palazzo  in  Rome. 
He  did  not  pride  himself  particularly  on  his 
success  in  conversation,  and  he  did  not  choose 
to  have  this  woman  regard  him  simply  as  an 
American  who  was  fooling  away  his  time  in 
European  travel,  if  he  could  show  her,  by  such 
a  success  as  would  be  involved  in  bringing 
home  Gerhard  Berlitz  in  triumph,  that  he  had 
some  sense  and  some  determination.  In  that 
event  he  thought  he  should  score  one  in  the 
rather  difficult  siege  which  he  was  pressing 
forward.  Still  more  he  knew,  should  he  score 
a  point  worth  scoring,  if,  in  one  of  the  tourna- 
ments of  modern  life,  in  a  real  shock  of  arms 
against  this  Brian  de  Bois  Guilbert,  who  was 
proposing  the  ruin  of  thousands  of  share- 
holders, there  was  such  an  opportunity  as  the 


SYBIL    KXOX.  103 

knights  of  old  time  did  not  know,  to  recom- 
mend themselves  to  the  ladies  of  their  lore. 

With  a  little  new  wonder,  not  irreverent,  be 
it  said,  at  the  "fine  connections  and  nice 
dependencies"'  which  had  revealed  to  him  this 
Berlitz  business,  John  Coudert  went  across  to 
the  particular  clerk  who,  only  five  minutes 
before,  had  been  interviewing  a  man  who,  he 
declared,  was  the  seventeenth  Berlitz  already. 
He  was  outraged  at  the  philanthropies  of  his 
chief,  and  amazed  that  a  man  as  intelligent  as 
Coudert  cared  one  straw.  Glad  enough  he  was 
to  give  up  this  quest  into  his  hands,  and  took 
with  eagerness  the  memorandum  of  the  Xew 
York  office  where  Mr.  Coudert' s  clerk  would 
take  the  whole  set  of  the  Berlitzes  in  charge. 
"  You  will  have  to  endow  a  hospital  for  them, 
or  a  House  of  Correction,"  he  said,  as  he 
gladly  gave  up  the  file  of  papers. 

And  Coudert  himself,  far  from  spending  that 
afternoon  or  the  next  day  in  the  palaces  of 
railroad  magnates,  to  determine  what  could  be 
done,  or  what  could  not,  with  the  C.  &  O., 
and  with  the  wreckers,  took  the  West  Shore 
Railway  to  a  quiet  little  way-station.  Here  he 


104  SYBIL    KNOX. 

found  an  old  Dutch  village,  which  in  ten  years 
had  hardly 'found  out  what  a  railroad  is,  or 
what  a  time-table  means.  From  house  to 
house,  from  doctor  to  minister  he  went,  to 
inquire  about  Gerhard  the  lost,  and  what  had 
been  known  of  the  "honestest,  most  steady 
fellow  that  ever  lived."  This  was  the  general 
verdict,  and  as  Coudert  returned  to  New  York 
it  was  with  a  certain  sense  of  a  mysterious  con- 
nection between  his  own  life  and  that  of  this 
lost  waif.  What  is  it  Fichte  says  ?  Coudert 
wrote  it  in  the  calendar  he  was  making. 

"  But  I  know  not  thee.  Thou  knowest  not 
me.  What  is  time  ?  How  certain  it  is  that,  as 
infinite  ages  pass  away,  I  shall  meet  thee,  thou 
wilt  meet  me,  as  each  to  each  renders  some 
needed  service  in  the  infinite  interchanges  of 
eternal  love." 

And  having  written  this  he  wound  his  watch 
and  went  to  bed.  "All  the  same,"  he  said 
aloud,  "all  the  same,  Brother  Fichte,  if  you 
please,  the  good  God  and  I  will  hurry  up  the 
infinite  ages.  What  is  time  ? " 


CHAPTER  X. 

TOHX  COUDERT  went  on  his  Western  rrav- 
*J  els  with  much  more  heart  after  he  had  seen 
people  who  had  seen  Gerhard  Berlitz.  He  was 
surprised  to  find  how  his  interest  in  this  man 
had  grown.  He  had  before  heard  nothing  bnt 
good  of  him  ;  that  was  well.  Bat  now  he  was 
sure  of  his  personal  existence;  he  was  no 
longer  a  myth  of  the  post-office— that  was  bet- 
ter. From  the  good  Dutch  woman  in  whose 
honse  the  errant  gardener  had  boarded  Coudert 
had  obtained  a  photograph  of  his  face,  which 
he  had  left  as  a  sort  of  keepsake,  but  which 
she  readily  exchanged  for  a  half-dollar.  Cou- 
dert did  even  come  round  to  belong  to  the 
party  who  did  not  believe  in  the  Bother 
woman."  He  did  not  yet  belong  to  the  party 
of  two  who  were  sure  that  Berlitz  was  alive. 
But  clearly  he  had  been  alive  when  this  photo- 
graph was  taken. 
What  he  learned  of  Berlitz  interested  him 


106  SYBIL    KNOX. 

He  had  always  seemed  liappy  when  a  letter 
came  from  his  wife.  He  never  drank,  and 
spent  neither  time  nor  money  at  the  grocery, 
which  was  the  drinking-place  of  the  village. 
From  some  whim,  which  no  one  understood, 
he  had  soon  given  up  that  first  plan  of  learning 
English.  "  German  was  good  enough  for  him  ; 
there  were  enough  Germans  everywhere." 
The  good  Fran,  with  whom  Coudert  talked, 
thought  he  was  a  little  cracked  about  this,  but 
in  truth  her  own  English  was  of  the  poorest. 

She  wondered  why  the  photograph,  rep- 
resenting him  in  his  best  clothes,  was  of  any 
value,  till  Mr.  Coudert  dropped  the  hint  that 
he  might  see  Frau  Berlitz.  Then  she  yielded 
gracefully  to  the  silver  arguments  he  offered. 

Somewhat  the  same  experience  renewed 
itself  at  Rochester,  where,  by  good  fortune,  it 
was  necessary  for  him  to  stop  to  make  inquiries 
as  to  the  C.  &  O.  Railroad.  Not  that  the 
reader  need  take  the  map  of  New  York  to  find 
the  route  of  that  railroad.  Has  not  the  Western 
Union  telegraph  lines  in  Southern  Florida? 
And  the  West  End  of  Boston  runs  its  cars  in 
Southern  Dorchester.  Whatever  the  hopes  of 


SYBIL    K3TOX-  107 

the  founders  of  the  C.  &  O.  may  hare  been,  it  has 
never  yet  reached  Opelonsas,  nor  has  any  train 
on  it  ever  departed  from  Cattarangus.  It  was 
wind  by  the  locks,  when  it  was  drowning,  by 
a  brave  young  man,  who  hauled  it  above  the 
flood,  some  thirty  years  ago.  and  compelled 
it  to  do  good  service  in  uniting  a  Northern  and 
a  Southern  system  of  transportation.  A  meas- 
ure of  signal  humanity,  began  by  him,  first 
called  attention  to  it;  and  afterwards  the 
honesty  of  its  legitimate  work — a  sort  of 
"  twenty-fi  ve-cents-to-the-quarter " '  quality — 
kept  its  stock  well  above  par.  The  Northern 
system  with  which  it  was  connected  sometimes 
tried  to  buy  it.  The  Southern  system  often 
pretended  to  try.  But,  in  reality,  it  had  been 
an  independent  company— a  sort  of  brave  little 
Switzerland  between  the  Germany  and  France 
of  raflroad-dom,  till  the  drama  of  this  year 
began.  And  now  John  Coudert  was  its 
William  TelL 

About  the  wicked  Gessler  who  was  to  work 
its  ruin,  he  learned  things  at  Rochester  which 
amazod  him,  even  after  what  he  knew  already. 
He  made  an  appointment  there,  with  some  large 


108  SYBIL   KNOX. 

stockholders,  for  the  next  day,  and  then, 
leaving  the  attraction  of  one  of  the  best  public 
galleries  of  art  in  America,  he  went  out  of  the 
city  to  hunt  up  traces  of  Gerhard  Berlitz. 
Another  portrait — this  time  a  full-length  min- 
iature— and  new  anecdotes  of  his  steadfast 
probity,  and  of  his  occasional  eccentricity, 
repaid  this  enterprise. 

All  of  fact  that  Coudert  really  learned  was 
that  the  nursery -man  with  whom  Berlitz  went 
West,  the  year  before,  seemed  a  very  decent 
sort  of  person,  and  that  Gerhard  Berlitz,  with 
a  sort  of  infatuation,  perhaps  homesickness, 
had  never  learned  ten  words  of  English.  He 
had  always  kept  in  "Dutch  company." 

As  to  the  wrecking  of  the  Cattaraugus  and 
Opelousas,  the  more  John  Coudert  learned  the 
more  serious  did  he  feel  the  adventure  on 
which  he  had  committed  himself.  Most  fortu- 
nate, indeed,  was  it  that  Judge  Kcndrick  had 
maintained  his  connection  in  New  York,  so  that, 
in  the  office  where  he  made  his  quarters  there, 
they  could  watch  the  New  York  end  of  the 
devices  of  the  enemy,  while,  at  the  West,  it 
was  possible,  perhaps,  to  meet  them.  Coudert 


SYBIL   KSOX.  109 


was  in  correspondence  with  both  ends  of  the 
line.  The  gentlemen  whom  he  met  in  Roch- 
ester were  in  despair.  They  knew,  by  old 
experience,  the  force  and  craft  of  the  enemy 
he  was  now  first  studying.  "  When  you  know 
this  man  better^  Mr.  Coudert,  you  will  let  him 
alone."  "  Mr.  Coudert,  you  need  a  long  spoon 
if  you  sup  with  the  devil."  "Do  not  throw 
good  money  after  bad,  Mr.  Coudert.  I  had 
fifty  thousand  in  the  C.  &.  O.,  and  I  bade  my 
bookkeeper  sell  and  charge  it  off  last  January. 
I  will  not  deal  with  such  a  knave." 

But  the  more  men  said  such  things  to  John 
Coudert,  the  more  he  said  that  somebody  must 
do  something.  He  had  begun  because  he  had 
his  sisters  to  protect.  Then  he  had  found  that 
he  had  his  Alma  Mater  to  protect.  The  Martin 
Pinzon  University,  where  he  was  educated, 
had  two  hundred  thousand  dollars  in  this 
C.  &  O.  stock.  Then,  to  his  dismay,  when  he 
got  hold  of  the  stock-list,  which  Judge  Ken- 
drick's  old  partner  in  Xew  York  had  secured, 
he  found  that  Mrs.  Knox  was  in  almost  as 
deep  as  the  Martin  Pinzon  University.  If 
there  was  justice  in  America,  he  would  not 


110  SYBIL   KNOX. 

stand  that.  He  had  asked  Judge  Kendrick, 
before  he  went  to  Wisconsin,  to  see  if  she  had 
in  any  way  secured  herself,  and  to  let  him 
know.  And,  with  this  triple  responsibility,  he 
went  westward,  to  receive  at  once  the  cold 
water  which  the  best  men  in  Rochester  now 
threw  upon  his  enterprise. 

The  most  crafty  speculator  in  the  older 
West  was  determined  that  the  C.  &  0.  stock 
should  be  ruined  in  the  market,  and  had  well- 
nigh  succeeded. 

Here  was  a  stock  which  Coudert  had  himself 
commended  to  his  sisters,  and  to  friends  in 
Europe,  only  two  years  ago.  It  stood  then  a 
solid,  well-established  enterprise,  working  on 
perfectly  legitimate  lines,  without  a  real  rival. 
The  stock  sold  at  one  hundred  and  thirteen 
easily,  even  when  the  market  wavered  for 
other  securities.  This  was  hardly  two  years 
ago.  But  now,  for  twenty  months,  this  stock 
had  steadily  fallen.  There  had  been  no  visible 
attack  on  it ;  there  had  been  no  unfriendly 
legislation;  there  had  been  no  "hated  rival." 
But,  every  month,  it  had  dragged  on  the  mar- 
ket when  it  was  offered  for  sale.  At  the  end 


5TBEL  KSOJL  111. 

of  each  month  the  quotation  would  be  lower, 
by  three  or  fonr  points,  than  at  the  beginning. 
And  now  it  bad  passed  two  dividends ;  it  was 
said  it  had  not  earned  the  next.  It  was  quoted 
at  thirty-three  to  thirty- four,  and  the  offer  of 
any  large  quantity  brought  it  down  to  a  lower 
figure.  And  if  you  asked  the  shrewdest  and 
most  Intelligent  men  in  the  market  what  was 
the  reason  for  this  decline  they  shook  their 
heads  and  said  that  nobody  knew.  But  they 
added  that  the  greatest  rascal  who  went  un- 
hanged in  our  time,  wanted  to  have  that  stock 
fall,  and  that  it  would  fall  till  he  wanted  to 
make  it  rise. 

John  Coudert  made  it  his  first  business  to 
find  out  what  were  the  tactics  of  his  enemy. 
He  went  to  the  reading-room  of  the  Young 
Men's  Christian  Association  in  Rochester,  and 
introduced  himself  as  president  of  the  society 
in  Wentworth.  He  made  himself  at  home 
there  for  a  week,  receiving  his  mail  and  writing 
his  letters  there.  He  burrowed  in  their  old 
files  without  saying  why.  No  one  asked  any 
questions,  and  he  consulted  nobody. 

In  these  studies  he  made  it  his  1  HHMMM  to 


112  SYBIL    KNOX. 

read  the  money  articles  in  the  Pinzon  Ad- 
vocate and  the  Functionary.  Pinzon  and 
Function,  as  this  reader  ought  to  know,  are 
the  two  points  between  which  the  C.  &  O.  now 
runs,  awaiting  that  completion  which  has  been 
referred  to,  between  Cattaraugus  on  the  one 
hand  and  Opelousas  on  the  other. 

If  you  have  ever  seen  the  Pinzon  Advocate 
and  the  Functionary  you  know  that  they  are 
printed  in  close  imitation  of  the  London  Times, 
probably  because  the  circumstances  and  needs 
of  their  readers  are  absolutely  unlike  those  of 
the  readers  of  that  journal.  It  is  therefore 
necessary,  for  instance,  that  each  journal  shall 
have  a  daily  article  on  the  money-market,  and 
four  leading  editorials,  in  leaded  bourgeois 
type,  because  the  London  Times  has. 

Mr.  Coudert  engaged  himself  for  a  week  in 
the  reading-room,  in  studying  these  money 
articles  for  two  years  back.  He  was  thus  en- 
abled to  fix  the  days  when  his  new  arch-enemy 
had  called  at  the  offices  of  the  gentlemen  who 
wrote  these  articles,  and  had  offered  each  of 
them  enough  passes,  thousand-mile  tickets,  or 
what-not  to  make  it  "worth  while"  for  him 


SYBIL   KXOX.  113 

to  represent  the  C.  &  O.  as  unfavorably  as 
possible.  It  was  clear  enough,  also,  that 
neither  of  these  intelligent  gentlemen  had  any 
acquaintance  or  correspondence  with  the  other. 
What  one  said  often  contradicted  what  the 
other  said.  But,  all  the  same,  the  general  im- 
pression was  given  by  each  that  the  C.  &  O. 
was  playing  a  losing  game. 

Each  journal,  up  to  the  fatal  July  11,  or  July 
12,  which  Mr.  Coudert  took  note  of,  had  been 
eager  in  extolling  the  management  of  the 
curiously  well-regulated  corporation.  After 
these  dates,  however,  each  journal,  without 
once  alluding  to  its  former  convictions,  had 
detected  gross  rottenness  in  its  affairs. 

After  the  study  of  these  two  years  of  history 
Mr  Coudert  visited  Pinzon.  He  had  not  been 
there  since  he  graduated,  and  he  was  glad,  he 
said,  to  be  there  as  Commencement  came  on. 
He  appeared  in  time  to  hear  the  president's 
baccalaureate  sermon.  He  gladly  accepted 
his  old  chum  Professor  Stillman's  invitation  to 
his  house,  and  he  stayed  till  the  last  guest 
had  left  after  the  Delta  Chi  Sigma  Conven- 
tion, even  after  the  last  mother  had  left  who 


114  SYBIL   KNOX. 

was  furnishing  the  room  of  her  freshman 
son. 

It  was  so  pleasant  to  see  how  John  Coudert 
kept  up  his  love  for  the  college., 

Alas  !  If  the  truth  were  told,  John  Coudert 
was  not  all  the  time  in  the  Delta  Chi  reading- 
room,  or  looking  over  the  old  census  reports  in 
the  college  library.  He  was  in  the  counting- 
room  of  George  Miller,  the  old  founder  of  the 
town.  Or  he  was  sitting  smoking  with  the  com- 
mercial travelers  at  the  Hotel  Pinzon.  He 
made  acquaintance,  by  remembering  one  of  his 
old  flames,  with  the  family  of  Converse,  the 
head  of  the  freight-yard.  He  gave  a  supper 
party  one  night  to  a  commercial  traveller,  whom 
he  had  met  just  once  in  Duluth,  and  asked  him 
to  bring  in  a  half-dozen  of  the  best  business  men 
he  dealt  with. 

The  pretence  was  that  it  was  desirable  to 
interest  these  men  of  affairs  more  in  the  college. 
But,  before  the  evening  was  half  over,  the  whole 
company  was  talking  C.  &  O.  politics,  not  to 
say  C.  &  O.  sociology.  And  so,  when  John 
Coudert  bade  his  friends  good-night,  when  the 
friendly  Duluth  drummer  shook  hands  last  of 


SYBIL   KXOX.  115 

aU  and  parted,  the  two  laughed,  and  Philbrick 
said.  "  Well,  Mr.  Condert.  I  think  what  you  do 
not  know  of  your  railroad  now  is  not  worth 
knowing." 

The  middle  of  that  critical  July  seemed  to 
hare  brought  with  it  events  more  fatal  to  the  C. 
it  O-  than  the  changed  tone  of  the  newspapers. 
At  that  time  there  had  been  two  most  ex- 
pensive wrecks  of  freight-trains,  which  were 
directly  traceable  to  the  neglect  of  a  drunken 
car-inspector,  who,  Condert  found,  had  never 
been  drunk  before ;  and  who,  on  his  discharge, 
was  "  taken  care  of"  by  a  railroad  controlled 
by  the  arch-enemy.  At  about  the  same  time 
the  C.  &  O.  lost  practically  all  its  grain- trade 
and  most  of  its  coal-trade.  It  had  turned  out 
afterward  that  this  was  from  high  rates  quoted 
in  error  by  a  confidential  clerk,  who  had  sud- 
denly left  the  road  the  next  month.  Coudert 
feared  that  he  had  no  evidence  that  would  pass 
a  court  of  law,  but  his  eyes  were  being  opened 
to  the  tactics  he  must  guard  against. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

SYBIL  KNOX  was  always  haunted  with  the 
dread  of  the  "mild  police"  of  a  small 
country  town.  From  the  moment  when  she 
had  said  she  was  to  live  in  her  father's  home, 
her  worldly  acquaintances,  and,  indeed,  many 
of  those  who  lived  in  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven, 
were  putting  her  on  her  guard  on  the  terrible 
restrictions  of  the  Liliputian  cordage  with 
which,  in  such  a  home,  she  was  bound.  She 
was,  therefore,  specially  interested  when  she 
found  at  the  sewing-society  that  its  chiefs  were 
awake  to  their  danger.  And  specially  was  she 
pleased  with  this  nice,  hearty  Blanche  Wilder- 
spin,  who  had  so  loyally  lent  herself  to  the 
cause  of  order  and  good  sense,  and  who 
brought  so  much  life  and  humor  into  the  whole 
concern. 

Mrs.  Knox,  therefore,  took  an  early  oppor- 
tunity to  ask  Miss  Blanche  to  come  up  to  the 
house  to  tea,  and,  in  a  quiet  way,  arranged 


SYBIL  K^CX.  117 


that  she  should  suggest  her  own  company. 
The  other  girls  were  glad  of  the  chance  to  see 
the  newly-opened  house,  and  Mrs.  Knox's 
pictures  and  other  pretty  things.  And  so. 
when  the  day  came,  she  found  herself  the 
centre  of  a  jolly  circle,  who  thought  her  a  hun- 
dred years  older  than  she  was,  but  who  seemed 
to  her  but  very  little  younger  than  herself. 
How  soon,  in  their  lives,  would  they  take  on 
the  dust,  the  bit  of  crape,  the  sun-burn,  or  the 
other  tokens  of  experience  which  made  the 
difference  between  her  and  them  ? 

Supper  was  served  on  the  large  eastern  ve- 
randa, with  its  lovely  view  of  the  Sans-Oreilles 
intervale,  and  the  sharp  mica-slate  monntain- 
peaks  beyond.  "  When  huoger  now  and  thirst 
were  fully  satisfied,*'  the  tables  were  carried  off 
and  the  girls  stayed  where  all  was  so  cool  and 
pleasant,  watching  the  last  glow  on  the  eastern 
hills  —  some  on  the  piazza-floor,  some  on 
cushions,  a  few  in  sea-chairs,  one  or  two  in 
hammocks  —  and  "the  conversation  became 
general,"  as  the  journals  of  clubs  say. 

44  Dear  Mrs.  Knox,*'  said  Blanche  impetu- 
ously, t;  never  you  believe  them.  Atherton  is 


118  SYBIL   KNOX. 

as  big  as  London  when  it  pleases  ;  and  it  is 
another  Cranberry  Centre  when  it  pleases. 
And,  if  you  will  permit  me  to  say  so,  I  suppose 
that  when  My  Lady  the  Duchess  of  Dragon- 
tail  talks  gossip  in  'Er  Majesty's  Drawing- 
room,  the  Drawing-room  becomes  Cranberry 
Centre.  And  also  I  suppose  that  when  Cran- 
berry Centre  discusses  the  good,  the  beautiful, 
and  the  true,"  and  here  the  girl  struck  an  at- 
titude, "then  Cranberry  Centre  rises  to  become, 
with  Florence  and  Geneva  and  Damascus,  one 
of  the  great  aBsthetic  centres  of  the  world." 

These  last  words  the  girl  delivered  with 
abundant  gesture,  as  if  she  were  an  elocution- 
ist from  the  Tarn  worth  "  School  of  Oratory," 
to  the  great  amusement  of  all  the  others. 

"That  is  all  very  fine,"  said  Mary  Stiles, 
"and  I  say  amen  to  it.  But  what  I  should 
like  to  know  is  this.  Suppose  it  rains  all  day 
like  fury.  Suppose  no  one  has  gone  out  of  the 
house,  or  means  to.  Suppose,  in  the  hardest 
shower  of  all,  the  sun  breaks  out  in  the  west. 
Suppose  there  is  a  magnificent  sunset  and  rain- 
bow. 

"  Now  all  the    authorities  will   say— Miss 


SYBEL   KXOX.  119 

Edgeworth,  Mrs.  Farrar,  Miss  Sedgwick,  Mar- 
garet  Fuller  will  say — that  one  may  leave  the 
Woman's  Tribune  waft.  Epictetusa&di  go  to  the 
window  to  see  the  rainbow.  That  is  granted. 

"  But  at  that  fatal  moment,  under  the  rain- 
bow, you  see  Dr.  Albert  driving  the  calico 
mare  like  mad  along  the  wet  road.  You  can- 
not help  seeing  him.  While  you  look  you  see 
Mrs.  Knox's  carryall,  with  the  span,  all  but- 
toned up  against  the  weather.  Say  what  you 
please,  it  is  impossible  not  to  wonder  why  she 
chooses  that  moment  to  drive.  Before  she  is 
gone  the  gypsies  come  along,  tether  their 
horses,  and  make  a  fire  at  the  end  of  Mrs. 
Knox's  avenue. 

44  In  the  evening  Blanche  Wilderspin  walks 
in.  Am  I  expected  to  say,  *  Dear  Blanche,  all 
day  I  have  waited  for  you  to  explain  to  me  the 
method  of  the  denudation  of  the  hills  in  the 
Southern  Tyrol  ? * 

"  Or  have  I  any  rights  ?  May  I  say,  *  What 
under  heaven  sent  Mrs.  Knox  to  ride  in  all 
that  rain  i  *  and  c  What  will  she  say  when  she 
finds  those  gypsies  by  the  gate  when  she  comes 
horneT 


120  SYBIL   KNOX. 

"Dear  Mrs.  Knox,  you  are  fresh  from 
the  Pope,  you  are  infallible.  Tell  us,  oh! 
tell  us,  in  this  wilderness,  what  we  shall 
say." 

Mrs.  Knox  was  delighted.  Whatever  else 
was  to  happen  to  her,  she  was  to  have  two 
bright  girls  at  her  right  hand  and  her  left,  and 
in  their  companions  she  saw  other  possible 
friends,  who  would  meet  any  social  demands 
of  winter  evening,  or  loitering  springs.  She 
did  not  refuse  Mary's  challenge.  She  had 
thought  too  much  and  talked  too  much  about 
gossip  and  the  danger  of  it  not  to  have  a  good 
deal  to  say.  Those  bitter  words  of  John  Cou- 
dert's  about  his  mother,  and  that  life  of  exile 
of  his  sisters  in  the  "  disreputable  attics  "  of 
Paris,  often  came  back  to-her. 

"My  dear  child,"  said  she,  "all  this  is  per- 
fectly admissible.  Gypsies  !  Why,  I  might 
talk  with  a  Cardinal  of  Rome,  or  with  Prince 
Bismarck,  about  gypsies.  I  might  pull  the 
sleeve  of  Sir  Frederick  Leighton  at  an  opening 
of  the  Royal  Academy  and  ask  him  about  the 
color  of  a  gypsy's  cheek. 

"It  is  not  there  that  danger  comes.     But 


SYBIL  KSQTL  121 

bow  wffl  it  be  when  dear  old  Dr.  Moody  has 
n-iden  over  from  the  Institute  to  see  me?  He 
lias  been  sure  that  there  mas  a  volume  of  Bayle 
in  my  fathers  library,  and  he  is  sorry  to  say 
that  in  the  Institute  library  there  is  not  a  com- 
plete set.  But  it  is  very  carious  that  there  is 
not.  for  he  remembers  distinctly  that  in  1S42.  or 
possibly  it  was  in  1543. — no.  it  was  certainly  in 
18&,  because  John  Gflpin  was  tiring  thai, — at 
of  Phi  Beta  at  the  Yale  C  "in- 
old  Dr.  Hammersley.  the  same 
brother  was  defeated  when  the  Federal- 
ists can  him  for  the  Senate  against  Mr.  Good- 
rich, told  Dr.  I^Mii^iM^  who  had  gone  down  to 
Commencement,  that  he  had  aega  a  copy  of 
Bayle,  in  the  Latin,  for  sale  at  a  Xew  York 
auction,  and  that  he  had  meant  to  buy  it  for 
the  Institute,  if  he  got  back  in  time  and  had 
any  money,  bat  thaf  unfortunately,  when  he 
came  to  the  auction  the  sale  had  taken  place 
the  day  before,  and  he  had  forgotten  his  cata- 
logue ;  also  that  he  had  no  money,  because  in 
paying  his  hotel  bill  he  had  offered  them  a 
twenty-dollar  bffl  which  proved  wild-cat— wild- 
cat being  a  name  which  perhaps  I  do  not  re- 


122  SYBIL    KNOX. 

member,  which  was  given  to  bills  from  the 
Western  States " 

And  then,  as  she  ran  on  with  her  really  ad- 
mirable imitation  of  Dr.  Moody,  she  saw  the 
aside  glance  which  Florence  Carrigan  threw 
on  Mary  Stiles,  and,  of  course,  broke  off  on 
the  instant. 

"Where  is  the  treasury?  We  must  have  a 
treasury  on  the  piazza,  and  I  will  pay  this 
Italian  scudo  for  the  first  fine.  But,  girls,  it 
is  as  I  say.  The  danger  comes,  not  with  gyp- 
sies or  rainbows,  or  the  doctor's  calico  horse. 
The  danger  comes  when  Dr.  Moody  comes." 

"People  are  so  very  entertaining.  Dear 
Mrs.  Knox,  I  think  they  are  a  great  deal  more 
entertaining  than  the  Silurian  system  or  the 
fall  of  Constantinople." 

"Jenny  dear,  have  the  goodness  to  go  and 
find  the  brown  and  black  vase  you  were  look- 
ing at,  on  the  mantel-piece.  Etruscan,  you 
know.  It  has  a  small  enough  neck,  which  is 
big  enough.  That  shall  be  the  treasury  for 
this  house,  and  here  is  my  fine. 

"  To  think  that  at  my  first  tea-party  I  should 
be  the  first  sinner ! 


SYBLL  KXOX.  123 

"Yes.  Clara,  I  hear  every  word  you  say. 
People  are  very  entertaining.  And  you  and  I 
will  talk  a  great  deal  about  people  yet.  But 
we  will  not  speak  ill  of  them  except  on  the 
witness-stand.  That  was  my  husband's  rule, 
and  it  was  a  good  one." 

"But  you  did  not  speak  ill  of  dear  Dr. 
Moody." 

"KTobody  could  speak  ill  of  him.  And  I 
will  send  the  Bayle  over  as  my  present  to  the 
Institute  to-morrow.  But,  I  am  afraid,  my 
dear,  that  if  Mrs.  Moody  had  been  here  I 
should  not  have  gone  into  quite  as  much  de- 
tail" 

So  they  swung  into  the  whole  great  question 
— and  all  the  collateral  questions.  Was  Ather- 
ton  worse  than  Rutland  or  Castleton  or  Ben- 
nington  ?  Was  it  worse  than  Buffalo  or  Phil- 
adelphia or  Chicago  ?  Was  it  worse  than  Lon- 
don or  Paris  or  Rome ! 

Mary  Stiles  said  that  her  mother  said  that 
Atherton  took  a  great  step,  upward  and  for- 
ward, two  generations  ago,  when  the  foreign 
missionary  work  came  in.  Mrs.  Stiles  said 
that  it  did  no  end  of  good  to  have  a  map  of 


124  SYBIL   KNOX. 

India  hung  on  the  wall  of  the  vestry,  and  to 
have  letters  from  Burmapootra  Jab,  or  Jaba- 
pootra  Sim.  She  said  that  even  if  people 
talked  scandal  about  Tippoo  Sahib  and  the 
Brahmin  Chunder-Blunder,  that  was  better 
than  talking  it  about  Mrs.  Pettingill  and  the 
Horsfords,  and  that  just  as  soon  as  the  school- 
girls were  sending  out  clothes  and  playthings 
to  some  twin  children  Dr.  Scudder  had  bap- 
tized, they  were  less  censorious  about  each 
other's  bonnets. 

Another  girl  trumped  this  remark  by  saying 
that  she  thought  Chautauqua  deserved  credit 
for  doing  the  same  thing,  and  the  King's 
Daughters.  She  said  that  John  Everard, 
whom  they  all  liked,  said  he  was  glad  to  meet 
a  woman  with  a  purple  ribbon  in  her  corsage, 
because  he  could  suppose,  at  least  at  the  begin- 
ning, that  she  was  a  woman  of  sense  and  not  a 
fool.  He  could  begin  with  talk  about  Walter 
Besant,  or  General  Booth,  or  the  Congo  nation, 
or  Mr.  Letch  worth's  book,  or  something  else 
sensible,  and  need  not  begin  on  the  mud  or  the 
dust,  or  the  color  of  the  meeting-house. 

"  I  do  not  want  to  talk  forever  about  Long- 


SYBIL   KXOX.  125 

fellow's  birthday.  But  I  had  rather  start  with 
Longfellow's  birthday  than  with  the  color  of 
Miss  Xaseby's  ribbons." 

"  We  seem  to  come  out  with  St.  Paul."  said 
Mrs.  Knox. 

"I  am  glad  we  do,"  said  Harriet  Wood, 
"but  I  did  not  know  it."  For  she  had  been 
trained  in  that  great  gospel,  "Confess  Igno- 
rance.'" 

"' Overcome  evil  with  good,'"  said  Mrs. 
Knox,  rising.  "  I  begin  to  feel  cold.  Come 
into  the  parlor  and  interpret  Beethoven  to  us, 
Miss  Hatty.  Do  you  know  that  story  i " 

Xo  ;  the  girls  none  of  them  knew  the  story. 

"It  was  a  favorite  story  of  Mr.  Knox's. 
They  were  at  a  very  grand  dinner-party  at  the 
finest  house  in  Buffalo.  They  were  talking  of 
grave  social  themes,  as  bright  men  and  women 
will,  and  one  of  the  most  distinguished  guests 
said,  'It  will  be  long  before  the  sister  who 
makes  such  good  tomato-soup  for  us  will  inter- 
pret Beethoven  when  we  ask  her  to."  Well, 
the  dinner  went  on,  so  bright  and  cheery  that 
they  did  not  like  to  leave  the  table.  But 
when  the  last  almond  was  eaten,  and  the  last 


126  SYBIL    KNOX. 

grape,  their  host,  a  prince  among  gentlemen, 
said: 

"  '  Well,  we  will  go  into  the  music-room, 
and  the  sister  who  made  the  soup  shall  "inter- 
pret Beethoven"  for  us.'  She  was  his  own 
beautiful  daughter,  one  of  the  most  accom- 
plished musicians  of  our  day." 

And  they  went  into  the  parlor  and  Hatty 
Wood  "interpreted  Beethoven." 


CHAPTER  TTT 

TT  was  not  wholly  as  a  matter  of  piazza* 
-L  joking;  that  Sybil  Knox  was  to  test  the 
capabilities  of  the  gossiping  of  Atherton. 
She  was  the  last  person  to  know  what  Ather- 
ton had  to  say  about  her.  Bat  there  were 
those  who  were  interested  in  her — yes,  and 
were  interested  very  tenderly,  who  had  to 
study  the  questions  of  gossip  and  its  conse- 
quences much  more  practically  than  she. 
Such  a  person,  for  instance,  was  John  Condert, 
far  away  on  his  travels, 

The  Deader  has  forgotten,  perhaps,  that  Mrs. 
Edwards,  on  her  first  visit  of  inspection  at  the 
Knox  house,  after  Sybil's  return,  was  surprised 
by  the  entrance  of  Horace  Fort  in  his  shirt- 
steeres,  and  observed  the  familiar  way  in 
which  he  called  the  mistress  "SybiL"  Mrs, 
Knox  had  forgotten  the  incident.  Indeed  she 
had  hardly  known  there  was  an  incident. 
Mrs.  Edwards  had  many  other  incidents  of 


128  SYBIL    KNOX. 

equal  importance  to  attend  to.  But  she  had 
attended  to  this,  in  its  place  and  time ;  she  had 
planted  the  seed  in  fit  soil,  and  the  fruit  of  this 
planting  was  now  planting  itself  all  over  the 
land.  Had  Sybil  Knox  given  a  hundred 
thousand  dollars  for  a  public  library,  that  gift 
would  not  have  been  known  in  the  State  of 
Kentucky  so  widely  as  the  greater  fact  that, 
on  the  Monday  after  her  arrival  in  her  old 
home,  Horace  Fort  had  come  into  her  parlor  in 
his  shirt-sleeves  and  had  called  her  ''Sybil/' 
It  may  be  added,  even  with  some  sadness  as 
one  writes,  that  if  Horace  Fort  had  made  a  new 
invention  which  would  enlarge  the  physical 
force  of  the  world  ten  per  cent.,  it  would  have 
taken  ten  years  before  so  many  people,  in  any 
community,  would  have  heard  of  it,  as  did  hear 
that  he  was  in  his  shirt-sleeves  that  morning. 
And  if  he  had  discovered  a  truth  in  education 
which  would  have  lifted  up  a  million  children 
to  stronger  lives  and  better  knowledge  of  God 
and  of  man,  why,  he  would  have  been  obliged 
to  start  a  periodical,  to  organize  a  society,  and 
to  travel  up  and  down  through  the  land  as  an 
apostle  for  ten  years,  before  he  would  dare  to  say 


SYBIL  K3TO3L  129 


that  as  many  people  believed  in  his  discovery,  as 
there  were  people  in  America,  who,  within  one 
month  after  he  entered  Sybil  Knox's  parlor  in 
his  shirt-sleeves,  believed  and  said  that  he  and 
she  were  engaged  to  be  married. 

Snch  is  the  interest  which  the  world  takes  in 
marriage.  It  cares  for  marriage  mnch  more 
than  it  does  for  the  multiplication  of  physical 
force,  or  for  the  elevation  of  personal  char- 
acter. Or,  it  would  be  better  to  say,  it  cares 
for  it  more  constantly. 

The  man  who  writes  a  story  of  six  thousand 
words  well,  ending  with  a  happy  marriage,  is 
well-nigh  sure  to  have  it  accepted  by  a  maga- 
zine-editor, and  read  by  sympathizing  thou- 
sands. 

As  for  the  other  man,  whose  short  story  of 
six  thousand  words  turns  on  his  improvement 
in  school  discipline,  he  will  have  but  little 
chance  with  any  editor—  except  the  editors  of 
LESTD  A  HAXD. 

For  this  excursus  may  this  writer  be  for- 
given! 

What  is  important  in  the  course  of  this 
story  is  that,  thanks  to  the  general  law  which 


130  SYBIL   KNOX. 

has  thus  been  laid  down,  and  to  the  particular 
result  of  it  in  this  instance,  John  Condert's  first 
news  of  Mrs.  Knox,  after  he  left  New  York, 
was  received  at  a  hotel  dining-table  in  Mem- 
phis. In  the  course  of  his  Western  business 
he  had  to  spend  a  day  in  that  city.  He  was  at 
the  Old  Hickory  Hotel,  and  at  breakfast  he 
met  a  gentleman  and  lady  whom  he  had  not 
seen  since  he  was  in  Florence.  It  was  a  min- 
ute now,  before  he  recollected  who  they  were, 
so  difficult  is  it  to  recall  a  travelling-acquaint- 
ance when  one  sees  him  under  wholly  new 
conditions.  But  after  a  minute  they  were 
back  ngain  on  their  Italian  experiences ;  and 
so  it  was  very  natural  for  Mrs.  Marvin  to  say 
to  him,  "And  so  our  old  friend,  Mrs.  Knox,  is 
to  be  married  again  ? " 

To  poor  John  Coudert,  who  carried  the 
thought  of  Mrs.  Knox  among  his  most  sacred 
memories,  and  would  hardly  have  spoken  her 
name  aloud  without  a  certain  care  and  tender- 
ness— to  him  to  hear  it  pronounced  in  this  off- 
hand way,  as  one  might  speak  of  Jim  Mace,  or 
of  Tom  Cribb,  was  in  itself  something  horrible. 
To  be  told  that  she  was  to  be  married  was  to 


SYBIL   K3TOX.  131 

be  told  that  the  dearest  hope  of  his  own  life 
was  Tain.  And  to  learn  this  from  a  person 
whose  name  he  hardly  knew,  in  the  midst  of 
the  clattering  of  forks  and  the  provision  of 
omelettes  and  Lyonnaise  potatoes,  was  one  of 
the  most  crnel  blows  which  the  incongruity  of 
fate  had  erer  inflicted  upon  him.  He  knew 
perfectly  well  that  his  face  flushed  with  color. 
But  Mrs.  Marvin  was  not  looking  at  him,  had 
no  reason  to  think  that  he  cared  more  for  Mrs. 
Knox  than  he  cared  for  Mrs.  Cleveland  or  lor 
Mrs.  Harrison  ;  and  she  went  gabbling  on. 

In  a  minute  more  she  was  talking  about  the 
freshet  on  the  river,  about  the  arrival  of  the 
Judge  Marshall  steamboat,  about  the  queer 
Italians  of  whom  they  had  bought  bananas 
the  day  before,  and  of  other  matters  of  in- 
terest  equal  to  the  engagement  of  Mrs.  Knox. 

But  John  Coudert  recovered  himself  so  far 
as  to  call  her  back  to  Atherton  and  her  news. 
She  had  almost  forgotten  that  she  had  spoken 
of  it.  It  had  seemed  necessary  that  she 
should  speak,  because,  by  the  law  which  has 
been  alluded  to,  people  must  talk  of  marriages. 
But,  having  spoken,  she  had  relieved  her 


132  SYBIL    KNOX. 

mind.  With  a  good  deal  of  difficulty  she  re- 
called the  information.  She  was  not  sure 
whether  Mrs.  Knox  were  yet  married,  she  be- 
lieved she  was ;  then  she  believed  she  was  not. 
She  did  not  recollect  the  name  of  the  gentle- 
man to  whom  she  was  to  be  married  ;  only  she 
was  quite  sure  that  it  was  some  one  Mrs.  Knox 
had  known  in  her  youth.  On  second  thought 
she  was  perfectly  sure  that  this  was  an  early 
attachment  which  had  been  smothered,  and 
which  now  had  suddenly  revived  again.  Any 
way,  she  was  certain  that,  in  a  letter  which  she 
had  received  from  Rutland,  this  matter  was 
spoken  of  as  quite  taken  for  granted. 

It  was  with  such  comfort  as  this  that  poor 
John  Coudert,  who  had  been  worshipping 
Sybil  Knox  in  the  absolute  secrecy  of  the 
inner  shrine  of  perfect  homage,  was  obliged 
to  go  on  his  farther  way,  and,  among  other 
things,  to  conduct  the  inquiries  by  which  he 
hoped  to  save  her  property  from  destruction. 

When  the  matters  which  led  him  to  Mem- 
phis were  adjusted,  out  of  sheer  bitterness  of 
heart  he  took  a  steamboat  up  to  St.  Louis,  as 
he  might  have  done  forty  years  ago,  ins  to  ad  of 


SYBIL    KXOX.  133 

going  more  rapidly  by  land.  What  differ- 
ence did  it  make  to  him  now  whether  he  ar- 
rived at  St.  Louis  a  few  hoars  earlier  or  later  ? 
What  difference  did  it  make  to  him,  in  fact, 
whether  he  arrived  anywhere  earlier  or  later  ? 
He  had  nothing  for  it  bat  daty  now,  and  he 
could  do  his  dnty  at  St  Louis  as  well  on 
Friday  as  he  could  on  Thursday.  With  this 
despairing  feeling  of  the  worthlessness  of  his 
own  life,  John  Coudert  took  his  passage  on 
an  upward-bound  steamboat.  It  need  hardly 
be  said  that  there  was  hardly  another  pas- 
senger on  board,  excepting  a  few  people  who 
meant  to  stop  at  landings  by  the  way. 

Among  these  people,  as  it  proved,  were  two 
German  farmers,  who  talked  all  the  time,  in 
the  security  of  their  own  language,  of  their 
own  affairs.  Coudert  did  not  think  it  neces- 
sary to  tell  them  that  he  understood  them  as 
well  as  if  they  spoke  English  ;  he  paid  but  lit- 
tle attention  to  what  they  said  when  they  sat 
at  table,  he  did  not  consult  with  them  as  he 
walked  the  deck  in  taking  his  solitary  exer- 
cise. Bat  it  happened  that,  at  supper  on  the 
night  of  the  voyage,  they  left  their  talk  of  the 


134  SYBIL   KNOX. 

ruling  prices  of  honey,  wax,  and  queen  bees, 
and  indulged  in  more  general  considerations. 
The  talk  fell  on  a  contrast  between  the  juris- 
prudence which  Frederick  the  Great  had 
bequeathed  to  Prussia  and  that  which  has 
grown  up  under  the  chances  and  changes  of 
self-governing  republics.  They  were  willing 
enough  to  grant  that,  in  some  matters,  the 
rough-and-ready  methods  of  the  American 
courts  worked  as  favorably  for  the  poor  man 
as  the  dispensation  of  justice,  from  above 
below,  in  Prussia.  But  the  younger  of  the 
two  men  pointed  out,  with  a  good  deal  of  bit- 
terness, the  injustice  which  could  be  done, 
under  the  systems  of  the  Western  States,  to  a 
man  without  friends  and  without  money. 
And,  by  way  of  illustrating  what  he  said,  he 
referred,  with  a  good  many  more  oaths  than 
it  is  necessary  to  put  upon  this  page,  to  the 
case  of  "  that  poor  dog  who  was  sent  to  prison 
for  knowing  more  about  the  railroad  fire  than 
anybod}^  else  knew."  The  words  "railroad 
fire"  caught  John  Coudert's  ear,  and  from 
the  sad  wandering  of  his  thought  back  to 
Vermont  and  the  life  of  the  American  colony 


SYBIL   KXOX.  135 

in  Rome,  he  came  to  listen  with  all  his  ears  to 
what  the  critical  German  had  to  say.  The 
other  was  stupid  and  did  not  understand,  so 
that  it  was  necessary  for  the  cynic  to  go  into 
some  little  detail,  and  it  was  clear  enough  that 
they  had  both  been  present,  waiting  for  a  case 
of  their  own  to  turn  up,  at  a  trial  in  the  court 
of  their  own  county,  in  which  two  men  had 
been  indicted  for  arson.  The  building  burned 
was  a  railroad  station ;  one  man  had  been  sen- 
tenced for  fire  years  for  setting  it  on  fire,  and 
the  other  had  been  sentenced  for  two  years.  He 
had  been  the  man  who  had  first  charged  the 
other  with  the  offence,  but  the  district-attor- 
ney had  come  to  the  conclusion  that  they  were 
accomplices,  and  this  second  man.  who  was  a 
Grermanr  had  been  included  in  the  indictment, 
and  had  been  sentenced  to  the  shorter  term  of 
imprisonment.  According  to  the  cynic  who 
told  the  story,  he  had  been  sentenced,  only 
because  he  had  no  money  to  pay  a  lawyer, 
and  because  there  was  nothing  else  to  do  with 
him.  According  to  him,  the  real  criminal 
would  never  have  been  detected  but  for  the  in- 
formation of  the  poor  traveller.  But  what 


136  SYBIL   KNOX. 

was  more  important  to  John  Coudert  was,  that 
the  name  of  the  poor  fellow  thus  unjustly 
handled  was  Berlitz. 

The  name  Berlitz  is  not  as  common  as  the 
name  Schmidt,  and  John  Coudert  believed 
implicitly  in  that  doctrine  which  makes  a  man 
follow  out  the  lead  of  what  is  said  to  come  to 
him  by  accident.  He  addressed  himself  to  the 
Germans  in  his  best  Berlinese,  rather  to  their 
surprise.  He  had  time  enough  to  pump  out 
from  them  all  that  they  knew  of  the  story, 
which  he  found,  alas  !  vague  and  imperfect. 
None  the  less,  however,  as  soon  as  they  arrived 
in  St.  Louis  did  he  take  his  traps  across  to  the 
railway  station,  and,  by  a  night  train,  return 
to  Pittsburg,  that  he  might  follow  out  the 
cle\v  which  was  thus  given  to  him. 

For,  though  Sybil  Knox  must  be  nothing  to 
poor  John  Coudert,  from  this  time  forward,  he 
did  not  mean  to  abandon  the  one  commission 
which  he  had  considered  that  he  had  received 
at  •her  hands.  And  so,  unconsciously  to  her, 
he  rode  all  that  night  at  forty  miles  an  hour 
in  the  pursuit  of  this  will  o'  the  wisp. 


CHAPTER  XKL 

O  return  to  Atherton  for  a  little.  Mrs. 
-I-  Knox  was  wholly  unconscious  all  this 
time  that  she  had  been  married  to  Horace 
Fort,  or  that  anybody  had  said  she  had  been 
married  to  him.  Even  Atherton  itself  had 
forgotten,  that,  for  a  week,  the  story  had  grown 
hotter  and  hotter  of  their  engagement. 
Atherton  itself  had  forgotten  that  it  had 
selected  the  groomsman  and  the  bridesmaids. 
Atherton  itself  had  forgotten  that  it  had 
speculated  on  what  the  fee  to  the  minister 
would  be,  and  where  the  wedding  journey 
would  take  the  bride  and  bridegroom.  It  had 
forgotten  as  well  all  its  speculation  as  to  the 
wedding-dress  which  Sybil  Knox  would  wear, 
and  whether  the  wedding  would  be  in  the 
morning  at  her  house  or  in  the  evening  at  the 
church.  It  is  quite  true  that  Atherton  had,  in 
the  week  after  the  story  started,  given  a  good 
deal  of  attention  to  these  particulars.  Its 


138  SYBIL   KNOX. 

views  on  these  points  had  trickled  out  and 
gone  as  far  as  Rutland,  as  the  reader  knows, 
and  from  Rutland  they  had  been  conveyed  on 
the  wings  of  the  wind  to  different  parts  of  the 
world  interested  in  such  subjects.  But  none 
the  less  had  Atherton  wholly  forgotten  the 
importance  which  the  matter  had  once  as- 
sumed in  its  eyes. 

The  truth  was  that  Horace  Fort  had  been 
given  to  understand,  by  some  pretty  sharp 
language  on  the  part  of  Mrs.  Sybil  Knox,  that 
he  took  unnecessary  airs  on  himself,  and 
assumed  too  much  intimacy  in  the  house 
which  was  reopened.  He  sulked  a  little 
under  this  treatment ;  he  had  then  been  in- 
vited by  a  friend  to  go  off  on  a  fishing-party 
in  the  north  of  Maine  ;  he  had  gone  on  this 
party,  and  had  been  away  all  summer  ;  and 
Atherton  had  not  only  forgotten  his  wedding, 
but  had  forgotten  him. 

And  Mrs.  Knox  was  wondering  more  and 
more  why  her  friends  in  Rome  had  said  such 
discouraging  things — not  of  Atherton,  of 
which  they  knew  nothing,  but  of  places  which 
they  supposed  Atherton  resembled.  To  say 


SYBIL    KXOX.  139 


the  truth,  she  had  struck  her  old  home  at  a 
particularly  favorable  time.  Had  she  arrived 
at  Thanksgiving  or  a  little  after  —  had  she  been 
obliged  to  take  it  first  in  the  blockade  of  the 
winter  storms,  and  then  in  the  worse  blockade 
of  the  mud  and  necessary  slush  of  March  and 
April,  she  would  have  known  better  what  they 
talked  about,  when  they  spoke  of  the  tyranny 
of  what,  in  another  page,  has  been  called  the 
"  mild  police  ?*  of  such  a  town,  but  which  they 
did  not  consider  mild  in  any  sense.  As  it 
proved,  for  June,  July.  August,  September. 
and  October.  Atherton  was  alive  with  parties 
of  visitors,  and  was  at  its  very  best.  It  ought 
to  be  named  in  the  history  of  the  nineteenth 
century  as  the  town  famous  for  picnics.  In 
the  geographies,  where  it  says.  *'  Lowell. 
Lawrence,  and  Holyoke  are  great  points  of 
manufacture:  Lynn  and  Worcester  supply 
large  quantities  of  shoes;  Cambridge  is  the 
seat  of  a  university;  and  Plymouth  is  the 
oldest  town  in  Xew  England,"  it  should  say, 
4*  and  Atherton  is  celebrated  for  its  picnics." 
I  have  been  in  no  place  where  the  method  of 
the  picnic  was  so  well  digested,  and  where  it 


140  SYBIL    KNOX. 

was  so  completely  taken  for  granted  as  a  part 
of  civilized  life.  By  which  I  mean,  that  these 
people  had  attained  that  height,  rare  indeed 
to  the  New  Englander,  in  which  one  knows,  in 
the  very  fibre  of  his  life,  that  all  is  well  when 
he  is  in  the  open  air,  while  he  suspects  that 
which  he  cannot  prove — that  indoors  things 
are  apt  to  go  badly. 

In  Atherton,  we  say,  as  the  sun  begins  to 
go  down,  "What  a  nice  afternoon  for  a  pic- 
nic ! "  And  you  send  over  a  note  to  Jane,  you 
ask  the  doctor  to  stop  at  Mary's,  you  run  up  a 
little  flag,  which  is  a  signal  to  them  at  John's, 
and,  without  a  word  of  other  preparation, 
three  or  four  families  of  you  find  yourselves, 
at  five  in  the  afternoon,  either  on  a  hillside, 
overlooking  half  the  world,  or  in  a  mica- 
slate  gorge,  where  such  a  cascade  is  falling  as 
would  be  marked  with  a  double  cross  in  a 
hand-book  of  Switzerland,  or  under  the  shade 
of  the  apple  trees  on  the  old  deserted  Griswold 
place,  where  the  orioles  and  robins  are  tamer 
than  they  are  anywhere  else  in  the  world,  and 
where,  but  for  the  apple  trees,  it  would  seem 
as  if  the  foot  of  man  had  never  stepped  before. 


SYBIL    KXOX.  141 

And  for  this  operation  all  that  has  been 
necessary  is  to  say  to  Asaph  Mears  that  he 
may  harness  the  carry-all,  and  to  Bridget  that 
we  are  going  to  take  tea  oat  of  doors,  and 
then  to  step  into  the  carry-all  and  to  go  there. 
There  are  baskets  in  every  house  planned  with 
absolute  precision  for  the  picnic's  adventure. 
Every  Bridget  knows  precisely  how  the  coffee 
is  to  be  arranged,  and  how  many  sandwiches 
and  hard-boiled  eggs,  and  provisions  without 
a  name,  will  be  necessary  for  the  party  in 
hand.  Every  one  of  the  families  to  whom  the 
signal  has  been  sent  knows,  by  a  divine 
instinct,  what  it  can  furnish  best  for  the 
occasion,  and  infallibly  there  is  on  a  visit  at  one 
of  the  houses  somebody,  from  the  other  side  of 
the  world  it  may  be,  whose  presence  is  enough 
to  make  the  occasion  a  different  picnic  from 
any  that  ever  met  before.  I  do  not  care  how 
old  the  inhabitant  is  who  attends  on  this' 
joyous  occasion,  he  always  feels  as  if  he  had 
never  been  at  that  place  before,  and  as  if  there 
had  never  been  a  picnic  at  Atherton  before. 
And  yet,  in  point  of  fact,  as  the  summer  goes 
byt  these  excellent  people  spend  three  days 


142  SYBIL    KNOX. 

out  of  four,  in  some  such  enterprise  in  the 
open  air. 

So  it  happened  that  as  Mrs.  Knox  ordered 
her  carriage  for  an  afternoon  drive,  rather 
doubting,  in  her  own  mind,  which  of  four  or 
five  possibilities  she  should  select  for  her 
guests,  she  saw  a  white  flag  run  up  a  little  spar 
above  the  barn  of  the  Carrigan  house.  The 
ready  opera-glass  showed  that  the  flag  carried 
the  figure  5. 

Mrs.  Knox  went  to  the  foot  of  the  stairway 
in  the  hall  and  called  to  the  girls  above  : 

"Mary,  tell  them  all  that  the  Carrigans 
have  a  picnic  at  five,  and  we  will  go  with  them. 
You  will  want  to  be  ready  to  start  ten  minutes 
before  five."  And  then  she  bade  little  Clar- 
chen  Berlitz  run  up  the  blue  flag  in  answer. 
The  child  was  signal-mistress  by  this  time,  and 
was  delighted  with  all  the  enginery  of  cords 
and  bunting. 

And  so  it  was  that,  with  a  promptness  which 
would  have  delighted  Von  Moltke,  within  a 
minute  of  the  stroke  of  five  of  the  clock,  there 
gathered  by  the  little  green  patch,  where  the 
county  road  crosses  the  new  road  to  the 


SYBIL  K3TOX.  143 

station,  four  different  carry-alls,  two  yonng 
gentlemen  and  three  bright  girls  on  horse- 
back. Mrs.  Carrigan,  from  her  own  carriage, 
welcomed  each  arrival,  and  gave  her  orders. 
They  were  to  rendezvous,  by  whatever  route 
they  liked,  at  the  bars  beyond  Gershom's  barn. 
She  had  bidden  her  own  boy  ride  forward  that 
the  bars  might  be  taken  down,  and  little 
Cephas  Gershom  be  ready  to  put  them  np 
again. 

"So  good-bye  till  then,"  said  the  hospitable 
lady  who  had  so  suddenly  assembled  the 
party.  "  I  am  glad  to  see  your  banjo,  Will." 
And,  by  different  routes,  they  drove  to 
Gershom's. 

Oar  particular  party,  which  means  Mrs. 
Knox's,  consisted  of  herself,  and  two  Soames 
girls,  with  a  friend  of  theirs,  Mary  Saville, 
from  Elmira.  She  had  known  these  girls  in 
Rome,  where  they  had  spent  a  winter  together, 
and  she  had  sent  for  them  to  make  her  a  long 
summer  visit.  Among  the  other  young  people 
there  was  a  theory  that  Harry  Spaulding  and 
Xed  Walker,  who  were  two  of  the  cavaliers, 
had  a  special  interest  in  the  Elmira  party. 


144  SYBIL    KNOX. 

But  nobody  really  knew.  The  young  men 
said,  and  perhaps  thought,  that  they  were  at 
the  Cliittenden  House  in  the  village  because  it 
was  a  convenient  centre  for  their  fishing.  All 
parties  were  away  from  home,  meant  to  have 
what  Dryden  and  the  vernacular  call  "a  good 
time,"  and,  in  literal  fact,  were  having  it. 
Cephas  Gershom  had  both  sets  of  bars  down, 
and  beamed,  with  a  well-pleased  smile,  as  Mrs. 
Piper  threw  him  an  orange,  and  as  Mary 
Soames  found  for  him  a  cream-cake.  The 
cortege  worked  its  way  under  a  magnificent 
grove  of  hemlocks,  and  then  the  gentlemen  of 
the  party,  with  Alonzo  and  Nahum  Gershom, 
saw  to  the  horses.  A  waterfall  on  one  side,  a 
green  grass  sward  for  nymphs  to  glory  in  on 
another,  shade  for  those  who  were  warm,  and 
sunshine  for  those  who  were  cold — there  was 
nothing  more  to  ask  for. 

Had  never  naiad  such  a  bath, 
Nor  dryad  such  a  fane  ! 

The  party  resolved  itself  into  its  elements, 
or,  as  Charles  Fourier  would  say,  divided 
according  to  the  attractions.  Certain  lads  and 


SYBIL    KN'OX.  145 

lasses,  preordained  to  such  industries,  spread 
a  cloth  nnder  some  old  apple  trees,  and 
brought  ont  as  much  and  as  little  china,  as  mnch 
and  as  little  Bohemian  pottery,  as  many  olires 
and  as  few,  as  much  and  as  little  cake,  cold 
beef,  and  warm  coffee,  as  the  precise  fitness  of 
things  required.  Between  them  and  the 
brook,  with  their  backs  against  a  log  which 
still  bore  George  IIL's  broad  arrow, — which 
had  been  cut  for  his  navy  while  the  Hampshire 
grants  were  his,  but  which  never  bore  his  flag 
because  Stark  beat  Banm  at  Bennington — with 
their  backs  against  this  log,  I  say,  sat  Will 
Piper  and  Xed  Walker  thrumming  on  their 
banjos.  On  th?  sward  before  them,  to  the 
time  of  their  sharply  accented  music,  were 
waltzing  three  or  four  couples  of  the  other 
young  people.  And.  under  the  hemlocks,  just 
above,  where  yon  command  that  wonderful 
vista  down  the  little  Taller,  which  is  only 
shut  in  by  the  faint  blue  of  Mt.  Marcy,  a 
hundred  miles  away,  sat,  or  lounged,  or 
lay  on  the  ground,  three  or  four  of  the 
elders,  well-pleased  with  the  beauty,  the 
harmonies,  and  the  simplicity  of  the  little 


146  SYBIL    KNOX. 

drama,  and  the  scenery  in  which  it  was  going 
on. 

"Yes,"  said  Mrs.  Carrigan,  the  same  who 
had  set  this  pretty  ball  in  motion,  "you  may 
say  what  you  choose,  it  is  better  for  people  to 
be  under  the  sky." 

"That  is  what  the  dominie  says  every  Sun- 
day. His  'fourthly'  is  invariably  like  this, 
4  And  would  it  not  be  well  for  us.  dear  friends, 
in  consideration  of  what  has  been  said,  to  leave 
these  prisons  which  we  call  homes,  and  under 
the  open  arch  of  God's  temple' — and  so  on, 
and  so  on." 

"I  wish  all  dominies  had  half  his  sense," 
said  she,  "whoever  he  is.  Mrs.  Knox,  you 
worry  yourself  about  gossip.  If  people  are 
pressing  ferns,  or  are  looking  at  the  spores  of 
mares'  tails,  they  will  not  be  discussing  your 
dress  or  mine." 

"  I  wonder  if  people  discuss  dress  in  Southern 
California.  Mr.  Hale  says  they  are  out-doors 
there  from  seven  in  the  morning  on  the  1st  of 
January  till  eleven  at  night  on  the  31st  of 
December." 

"  Do  not  fret  yourself  about  gossip,  my  dear 


SYBIL   KXOX.  147 

Mrs.  Knox.  There  are  worse  misfortunes  than 
the  friendly  interest  of  your  neighbors/' 

••I  call  it  the  mild  police."  said  Colonel 
Canigan,  coming  in  from  an  inspection  of  the 
Grershom  live-stock. 

"  Mild  police,  if  you  please.  The  same  in- 
terest which  makes  Miss  Ann  Stiles  wonder 
why  I  turned  my  barege  dress  in  October, 
rather  than  Xovember,  made  her  send  in  better 
beef-tea  than  any  of  us  knew  how  to  make, 
when  John  was  on  his  back  in  December. 
Take  it  for  all  in  all,  I  am  glad  I  am  not  Mrs. 
Robinson  Crusoe." 

"But,"  said  Mrs.  Knox,  "we  are  not  dis- 
cussing that  question.  I  do  not  want  to  be 
Robinson  Crusoe.  What  I  want  to  know  is, 
where  does  one  live  in  this  world,  among  other 
people,  and  hear  the  least  petty  talk  about 
what  his  neighbors  are  doing  ?  Where  could 
I  live,  for  instance,  where  I  should  not  know 
that  if  I  wore  my  last  dress  by  Worth  the 
neighbors  would  say  that  I  was  showing  my- 
self off  because  they  did  not  have  such  nice 
gowns,  and  where,  if  I  wore  a  plain  cashmere, 
they  would  not  say  *  Mrs.  Knox  does  not  think 


148  SYBIL    KNOX. 

we  are  grand  enough  to  see  her  fine  things 
from  Europe?'  Is  there  any  such  Happy 
Valley,  or  any  such  oasis  in  a  desert,  or  is 
there  any  place  called  Washington,  where  this 
should  happen  to  me  ?  Or  where  shall  such 
rest  be  found?" 

"As  for  that,"  said  Colonel  Carrigan,  "I 
should  say  promptly  that  people  talk  as  much 
gossip  in  one  place  as  another.  But  if  you 
happen  to  live  in  as  small  a  place  as  Cranberry 
Centre  gossip  comes  back  to  you,  while  if  you 
live  in  Washington  or  New  York  you  are  so 
much  engaged  in  other  things  that  you  do  not 
happen  to  hear  of  it. 

"I  could  make  you  an  excellent  illustra- 
tion from  the  laws  of  sound.  You  may  be 
in  a  small  place,  where  your  voice  is  flung 
right  back  on  you.  You  may  be  in  a  large 
hall,  where  your  voice  is  not  flung  back 
upon  you,  but  is  flung  up  and  down  and 
right  and  left  over  the  people  who  sit  before 
you. 

"  You  go  back  from  speaking  in  that  hall, 
and  you  say  to  the  architect,  '  There  are  no 
echoes  in  your  hall,  Mr.  Wren,'  when  the 


5TBH.  K3TOX.  149 

troth  is  that  there   axe  echoes  enough,  only 
you  did  not  happen  to  hear  them.'* 

"That  is  all  very  pretty,"  said  his  wife, 
"and  I  suppose  there  is  something  in  it.  At 
the  same  time.  I  think  Mrs.  Knox  would  say. 
if  she  ventured  to  speak,  that  she  found,  after 
they  had  been  a  few  hours  in  one  of  the  Roman 
galleries,  that  they  had  some  things  to  talk 
about,  which  they  did  not  hare  after  they  had 
been  ten  days  shut  up  in  a  gale  in  the  ladies' 
saloon  of  the  Gtrmamc.  Xow.  for  precisely 
the  same  reason,  it  will  happen  that,  after  we 
hare  spent  a  week  or  two  by  ourselves  in 
Atherton.  the  newspapers  all  shut  off  because 
there  is  a  snow-storm,  all  life  shut  off  because 
the  ground  is  five  feet  under  snow,  we  are  a 
little  bit  more  apt  to  talk  about  Mrs.  Good- 
child's  chickens  and  guinea-hens  than  we 
should  be  if  we  were  just  coming  home  from 
the  Vatican." 

"Somebody  once  said  that 

"  Tfce  proper  stadtf  of  •**»!  SMB. 
and  a  good  deal  of  respect  has  been  given  to 
this   somebody.      His 
Pope." 


150  SYBIL    KNOX. 

u  Yes,  and  he  was  a  sad  gossip,  I  am  afraid, 
from  all  that  I  know  of  him.  Indeed,  I  should 
suspect,  from  the  very  poem  from  which  you 
quote,  that  he  knew  as  much  of  the  imperfec- 
tions of  his  fellow-creatures  as  most  people  do, 
and  that  he  was  not  disinclined  to  speak  of 
them." 

"That  may  be;  still,  I  do  not  think  that 
Mr.  Pope,  or  anybody  else  who  likes  to  discuss 
human  nature,  would  have  told  us,  in  good 
classical  measure,  that  'Mrs.  George  Cobleigli 
presented  a  large  and  bountiful  wedding  cake,' 
and  that  '  her  work  in  that  line  is  such  as  few 
may  venture  to  surpass'  ;  that  'Mr.  C.  P 
Davenport  gave  a  greenback  V.  to  his  minister,' 
or  that  '  Mr.  and  Mrs.  W.  K.  Farr  gave  a  pair 
of  the  same  value,  and  Grandma  Emerson  gave 
a  carving-set ; '  or  that  '  Miss  Ida  Miner,  a 
sister  of  the  bride,  gave  her  a  crocheted 
afghan.'" 

These  facts  he  read  from  the  county  news- 
paper, which  he  took  from  his  pocket,  quoting 
its  description  of  an  ecclesiastical  party  in  the 
neighborhood. 

But  here  Mrs.  Knox  interrupted  him.     She 


SYBEL  KXOX.  151 

said.  "Let  us  do  one  thing  at  once,  ColoneL 
We  are  not  discussing  the  press  or  its  short- 
comings, which  are  many  in  most  countries, 
We  are  discussing  the  conditions  of  gossip, 
and  I  am  trying  to  find  out — what  I  have  been 
trying  to  find  out  in  three  or  four  different 
circles — whether  there  is  any  more  of  it  in 
Atherton  than  there  is  in  Rome." 

But  at  this  moment  they  were  all  summoned 
to  partake  of  the  picnic,  and  all  had  the  satis- 
faction of  eating  something  which  they  had 
never  seen  before,  while  each  had  provided 
something  for  the  hunger  and  thirst  of  the 
others.  The  charm  of  Atherton  in  its  picnics 
showed  itself  here.  The  real  charm  of  a  picnic 
is  that  the  lady  of  the  house,  while  she  pre- 
pares a  supper,  as  she  should  do.  eats  a  supper 
which  she  has  not  prepared.  There  are  certain 
traditions  in  each  Vermont  household  as  to 
what  can  and  cannot  be  done,  with  the  maxi- 
mum of  eggs,  the  maximum  of  sugar,  the 
minimum  of  flour,  and  the  maximum  of  cream. 
There  is  also  a  well-defined  certainty  that  man 
does  not  live  by  cake  alone,  but  by  certain 
food  more  sustaining ;  so  that  there  were 


152  SYBIL   KXOX. 

various  provisions  on  the  cloth,  which,  was 
spread  upon  the  sward,  more  satisfactory  to 
persons  who  have  passed  forty  years  of  age, 
and  far  better  fitted  for  the  machinery  of  their 
internal  system,  than  these  elegancies  which 
have  been  described. 

Under  all  these  agreeable  circumstances  the 
conversation  turned.  They  certainly  did  not 
discuss  people  ;  they  did  nqt_talk  a  great  deal 
about  what  they  ate  ;  least  of  all  did  they  say 
that  they  were  sick,  or  tell  what  was  the  mat- 
ter with  them,  or  with  what  medicines  they 
hoped  to  be  cured.  But  in  the  wholesome  and 
natural  way,  in  which  talk  will  run  on  where 
there  are  pretty  girls  and  unaffected  boys, 
where  there  are  men  off  duty  and  women 
without  -care,  they  told  stories  and  trumped 
them,  they  passed  "from  grave  to  gay,  from 
lively  to  severe,"  till  a  black  thunder-cloud 
made  its  appearance  along  the  southern  sky. 

Colonel  Carrigan  pointed  his  long  finger  at 
it,  as  he  saw  it  first  through  the  line  of  locusts. 
Every  one  sprang  to  his  feet.  The  table-com- 
mittee in  a  moment  had  emptied  cups  and 
saucers,  and  in  a  magically  short  time  had 


SYBIL    K3TOX.  153 

wiped  them  somehow  and  had  packed  them. 
The  boys  had  pat  the  headstalls  on  the  horses, 
backed  them  into  the  carriages,  and  bronght 
the  carriages  round.  And,  in  half  an  hour 
from  the  time  vrhen  the  senior  party  was  dis- 
cussing the  laws  of  conversation,  and  the  junior 
party  was  waltzing  on  the  green,  the  whole 
company,  almost  at  a  2.40  gait,  were  rattling 
along  the  Vernon  road,  with  the  sides  of  the 
carriages  well  buttoned  down,  so  that,  before 
the  shower  had  pelted  on  them  more  than  five 
minutes,  every  horse,  every  carriage,  every 
boy,  and  every  girl,  were  under  shelter. 

We  are' most  interested  in  Mrs.  Knox. 
There  had  been  a  covered  way  arranged  at 
the  side  of  her  house,  so  that  she  stepped 
from  the  carriage,  without  so  much  as  a  drop 
of  rain  falling  upon  her.  She  did  not  even 
have  to  change  her  shoes,  and  if  there  had 
been  forty  grandmothers  in  the  house  they 
could*  not  have  persuaded  her  that  she  would 
take  cold.  She  was  able  at  once  to  turn  to  the 
mail,  which  had  been  brought  in  since  she 
went  away.  She  ran  over  the  half-dozen  let- 
ters before  opening  them,  and  being  quite 


154  SYBIL    KXOX. 

alone,  she  selected,  as  that  which  she  should 
read  first,  one  of  which  she  knew  the  hand- 
writing perfectly,  though  she  did  not  know 
why  it  was  mailed  from  St.  Louis. 

When  she  read  it  she  was  astonished,  more 
than  she  had  been  astonished  for  years,  nor 
could  she  understand  it.  The  reader  will  see 
why  if  he  has  the  whole  letter  laid  before  him  : 

John  Coudert  to  Mrs.  Sybil  Knox. 

"  ST.  Louis,  August  4. 

"  MY  DEAR  MRS.  KTCOX  :  I  still  address 
you  by  this  name,  because,  although  I  have 
heard  of  your  marriage,  I  do  not  know  who  is 
so  fortunate  as  to  have  changed  it.  It  was 
only  by  accident  that  I  heard,  at  Memphis,  of 
an  event  so  important  to  you  and  your  friends, 
of  which,  by  some  chance,  I  had  not  heard  be- 
fore. But  the  world  is  not  large,  it  seems, 
although  we  try  to  persuade  ourselves  that  it 
is.  Yon  have  here  my  excuses  for  not  being 
earlier  in  sending  my  good  wishes,  and  my 
apology  at  the  same  time  for  addressing  you 
by  the  name  under  which  I  knew  you.  I  think 
I  may  presume  so  far  upon  our  acquaintance — 
I  wish  I  might  say  our  friendship— as  to  feel 
that  I  am  among  those  who  are  privileged  to 


SYBIL    KXOX.      *  155 

express  high  hopes  for  your  f nture.  (I  never 
permit  myself  to  congratulate  a  lady  on  the 
occasion  of  marriage.  I  remember,  when  I 
was  a  boy,  I  said  to  one  of  my  girl  friends, 
*  Congratulation  implies  effort.'  I  am  not 
snre  if  this  is  so,  but  I  have  held  to  that 
scripture  ever  since.)  I  certainly  send  my 
congratulations  to  your  hnsband.  and  I  beg 
that  you  will  do  me  the  favor  to  offer  them  to 
him. 

"May  I  also  ask  that  you  will  have  the 
kindness  to  send  to  me  your  new  address  ? 

"  Lest  yon  should  think  that  I  am  presump- 
tuous in  preferring  this  request,  I  will  venture 
to  tell  you  on  what  enterprise  I  am  engaged. 
I  am  afraid  it  is  a  somewhat  hopeless  one. 

••  When  I  was  in  Xew  York  I  had  occasion 
to  examine  the  present  condition  of  the  Catta- 
raugns  and  Opelousas  Railroad  property.  At 
my  advice,  some  of  my  relatives  have  invested 
a  very  considerable  part  of  their  property  in 
these  securities,  and,  on  my  return,  I  was  dis- 
mayed to  find  that  the  depreciation  in  their 
price  was  still  going  on.  I  had  thought  it  a 
mere  accident  of  the  stock-market,  and  that, 
with  returning  good  sense  and  the  true  pros- 
perity of  the  country,  this  property  would 
attain  its  former  standard.  As  I  was  the 
adviser  of  my  sister  and  other  friends,  it  is  my 


156  SYBIL    KNOX. 

duty  to  see  that  my  advice  is  justified  if  possi- 
ble. I  have  therefore  come  to  the  West,  clad 
with  a  good  deal  of  authority  from  holders  of 
the  first  and  second  bonds,  and  am  trying  to 
make  an  investigation  into  the  condition  of 
that  property. 

"  It  was  thus  that,  without  in  the  least  inter- 
fering in  other  people's  affairs,  I  learned, 
almost  by  accident,  in  New  York,  that  at  one 
time  you  had  a  considerable  investment  in  this 
property.  I  allude  to  it  now  that  I  may  ven- 
ture to  advise  you  and  your  husband  not  to  be 
induced  too  hastily,  by  any  counsellor,  to 
sacrifice  the  property  at  its  present  market 
rates.  I  am  in  possession  of  information  which 
must  materially  affect  the  market,  when  it  is 
known.  I  cannot  but  hope  that  it  may  be  so 
used  as  shall  be  for  the  benefit  of  all  of  us.  I 
am  probably  not  at  liberty  to  say  more  now ; 
but  if  you  will  tell  me  in  whose  hands  you 
may  place  your  interests,  if  at  any  moment  you 
entrust  them  to  any  one  besides  our  friend 
Kendrick,  I  shall  be  glad  of  the  opportunity 
of  advising  with  him  confidentially. 

"There  is  another  matter  in  which  you  are 
interested,  in  which  I  have  interested  myself 
as  well.  It  is  as  to  the  present  position  of  a 
man  named  Berlitz,  of  whom,  I  think,  you 
know  something.  Judge  Kendrick  (what  the 


SYBIL  reOX.  137 


people  call  our  i  mutual  Mend7) 
gave  me  some  particulars  of  the  curious  ro- 
mance by  which  you  and  he  were  mixed  up  with 
the  affairs  of  Beiiitz  s  widow—  if  she  be  a 
widow.  I  fancied,  I  hardly  know  why.  that  I 
might  nnravel  that  mystery.  I  hare,  almost 
at  this  moment,  possessed  myself  of  another 
trail  or  clew.  and.  if  I  follow  it  to  any  advan- 
tage, I  will  certainly  let  you  know  what  are 
the  results.  Perhaps  you  will  be  50  kind  as  to 
tell  me  where  Mrs.  Berlitz  is  now  living.  that  I 
may  communicate  with  her. 

"Pardon  me,  dear  Mrs.  Knox,—  or  I  should 
say,  Madame  Flnconnue.—  for  taking  so  much 
time  from  a  season  which  must  be  crowded 
with  pleasure.  Our  little  correspondence 
always  gare  me  much  pleasure,  and  I  should 
be  sorry  to  think  that  it  must  be  interrupted 
now.  My  address  for  some  time  will  be  Pitts- 
burg.  Pennsylvania.  This  does  not  mean  that 
I  am  to  live  there,  but  it  is  a  central  place  from 
which  I  can  easily  order  my  letters. 

:h  my  best  respects,  and  renewed  con- 
gratulations to  your  husband.  I  am. 
4  Very  truly  yoora, 

"  JoHjr  Corona." 

Sybil  Knox  could  hardly  believe  her  eyes. 
Her  first  thought  was  that  John  Condert  had 


158  SYBIL   KNOX. 

gone  crazy.  If  he  had  gone  crazy,  however, 
there  was  method  in  his  madness.  Then  she 
had  that  curious  feeling  that  he  had  folded 
the  wrong  letter,  and  put  it  into  an  envelope 
intended  for  somebody  else.  But  of  course 
she  saw  that  this  would  not  do :  she  was 
addressed  by  name  on  the  inside  of  the  letter, 
as  she  was  addressed  on  the  outside.  Who  in 
the  world  had  told  John  Coudert  that  she  was 
married?  To  whom  in  the  world  had  that 
person  said  she  was  married  ?  Or,  rather,  if 
that  person  had  not  said  she  was  married,  to 
whom  in  the  world  had  that  person  thought  she 
was  married  ?  Where  had  she  been,  what  had 
she  done,  what  had  she  said,  which  should 
make  her  the  victim  of  other  people's  talk? 
Or  what  should  have  given  the  slightest 
foundation  for  so  absurd  a  story?  Could  it 
have  been  that  she  had  come  into  some  "society 
newspaper"  without  knowing  it?  Or  possi- 
bly that  there  had  been  an  account  of  the 
marriage  of  some  other  Mrs.  Knox,  or  Miss 
Knox?  Had  some  reporter  mistaken  an 
actress  for  her,  or  her  for  an  actress?  And 
what  freak  of  destiny  was  it  which  had  sent 


SYBIL  KNOX.  159 

across  the  world  this  mish-mash  of  manu- 
factured intelligence,  as  absurd  as  the  an- 
nouncement of  the  wedding  of  Semiramis  to 
Benjamin  Franklin,  so  that  poor  John  Condert 
should  read  or  should  hear  ? 


CHAPTER  XIY. 

DOBCASVILLE  was  the  county  town  in 
which  was  the  building  which  an- 
swered for  Jail  and  House  of  Correction, 
which  John  Coudert,  for  other  men's  sins, 
was  now  to  investigate.  Dorcasville  had  been 
left  on  both  sides  by  the  railroad  engineers  of 
that  region.  It  had  been  erected  fifty  years 
ago,  when  a  network  of  canals  was  stretched 
through  and  over  the  State — canals  which  exist 
now  only  for  the  benefit  of  boys  who  wish  to 
fish,  and,  in  a  few  cases,  for  a  wretched  water- 
power  which  they  created  and  still  maintain. 
The  gay  and  lively  stage-lines  which  once 
stopped  for  breakfast,  for  dinner,  and  for 
supper,  at  the  Dorcasville  Eagle,  long  since 
ceased  to  run  or  to  stop.  The  Dorcasville 
Eagle,  even,  suspended  his  operations,  and 
his  inn  was  closed.  Boards  were  nailed  across 
the  windows  to  save  them  from  the  missiles  of 
boys.  And  the  proud  bird  himself,  taken  from 

160 


SYBIL    KNOX.  161 

the  post  which  he  adorned,  was  carried  to  a 
museum  as  a  relic  of  the  past.  But  the  inconve- 
nience to  the  officers  of  the  court  and  other 
antiquarians,  who  still  had  to  come  to  Dorcas- 
ville  twice  a  year,  and  perhaps  oftener,  had 
compelled  a  public  movement  by  which  the  old 
"Tavern"  was  reopened.  A  veteran  of  the 
war  was  placed  there  to  live  without  rent,  and 
to  keep  it  for  what  he  could  get.  Thus  were 
accommodations  secured  for  the  justices  on 
their  circuits,  and  the  immediate  danger 
averted  that  even  the  county  records  and  the 
jail,  which  were  the  last  relics  of  the  grandeur 
of  Dorcasville,  should  be  removed  to  Homer, 
where  the  B.  &  J.  crossed  the  line  of  the  A.  & 
Q.  roads,  a  smart  village,  which  "claimed" 
ten  thousand  inhabitants,  and  had,  by  actual 
census-count,  six  hundred  and  seventy-one. 

In  this  shelter,  which  maintained  the  tradi- 
tions of  hospitality  with  as  little  of  their 
substance  as  is  possible  in  those  Ohio- washed 
States,  where  no  man  was  ever  hungry,  John 
Coudert  found  himself  laid  by  to  rest,  after 
driving  across  on  a  buck-board  from  the  junc- 
tion at  Homer.  Xever  was  a  more  dismal  wel- 


162  SYBIL    KNOX. 

come.  He  had  taken  the  one-armed  proprietor 
by  surprise,  the  wife  of  the  one-armed  proprietor 
was  indignant  at  the  arrival  of  a  stranger  after 
she  had  cleared  up  for  the  evening,  and  it  was 
clear  that  he  was  not  welcome.  In  his  most 
engaging  vein,  however,  he  assured  the  lady 
of  the  house  that  he  did  not  want  a  hot  supper 
after  his  drive.  He  asked  her  if  she  could  not 
give  him  some  bread  and  milk,  to  which  she 
answered  that  she  could  not,  but  that ' '  there  was 
crackers."  In  a  little,  he  found  himself  at  a 
dirty,  India-rubber-covered  table,  with  a  plate 
of  crackers  which  had  been  left  by  some  baker 
as  a  specimen  of  his  craft  some  weeks  before. 
But  there  was  a  great  flagon  of  milk,  which 
had  neither  been  salted  nor  otherwise  pre- 
served, but  was  fresh  from  some  Dorcasville 
cow.  John  Coudertwastoo  old  a  campaigner 
to  be  dissatisfied  with  this  provision.  He  made 
himself  comfortable  with  his  supper,  and  then 
went  out  to  be  inspected  upon  the  piazza  of  the 
house.  He  found  here,  as  he  expected,  two 
or  three  loafers  of  the  neighborhood,  who  had 
not  yet  outlived  the  customs  of  the  days  when 
Dorcasville  was  more  alive.  He  seated  himself 


SYBIL    KXOX.  163 

in  the  midst  of  them  with  a  "good-evening,*' 
offered  a  cigar  to  one  and  another,  which  was 
accepted,  and,  before  the  evening  was  over,  he 
knew  the  gossip  of  the  place,  on  the  snbject 
about  which  he  had  come  to  inquire. 

The  next  morning  he  called  upon  the  keeper 
of  the  prison.  To  his  relief,  though  hardly  to 
his  surprise,  he  found  an  intelligent  dreamer, 
who,  in  the  queer  lottery  of  public  appoint- 
ment in  those  States,  had  been  put  in  charge 
of  the  county  prison.  The  man  was  not  sur- 
prised that  a  visitor  should  come  to  inquire 
after  one  of  his  prisoners  ;  he  would  not  have 
been  surprised  had  this  visitor  had  two  wings 
to  cover  his  head  and  two  to  cover  his  feet  and 
two  with  which  to  fly.  He  admitted  Coudert 
into  the  great  room  where  the  prisoners  were 
making  harnesses,  under  the  eye  of  a  contrac- 
tor ;  called  Berlitz  from  his  work-bench,  and 
left  the  two  alone.  Coudert  had  been  well 
aware  that  his  difficulty  would  be  in  overcoming 
the  shyness  or  the  pride,  which  all  persons  had 
told  him  was  a  characteristic  of  Berlitz.  He 
had  provided  himself,  with  some  sense  of  the- 
atrical effect,  with  quite  a  parcel  of  German 


164  SYBIL    KNOX. 

newspapers,  some  pictorial  papers,  and  even 
one  from  Berlin  itself.  But  his  man  was  evi- 
dently cowed  and  discouraged.  The  sight  of 
portraits,  even  of  persons  whose  names  he.  had 
heard  all  his  life  in  German  talk,  did  not  seem 
to  be  much  encouragement  to  him.  When 
Coudert  produced  some  short-cut  tobacco,  and 
asked  him  if  that  came  into  the  prison  ration, 
he  took  more  interest  in  his  companion,  and 
after  a  little  the  suspicion  which  he  showed  at 
first  gave  way.  But  the  real  theatrical  stroke 
was  given,  not  in  the  presentation  of  tobacco,  nor 
in  the  cold  glancing  at  newspapers,  but  when 
Coudert  mentioned,  as  by  accident,  the  name 
of  his  wife  and  of  his  child,  and  told  him  that 
they  were  in  America.  At  the  instant  the  man 
was  transformed.  He  had  been  too  proud  to 
write  to  his  wife  from  a  prison ;  he  had,  of 
course,  received  no  communication  from  her. 
But  from  that  instant  John  Coudert  was  sure 
that  those  had  maligned  poor  Berlitz,  who  had 
made  the  ready  suggestion  of  "the  other 
woman."  He  had  already  been  sure  that  he 
had  struck  the  right  man. 

Poor  Berlitz' s  story  was  but  an  amplification 


SYBIL   KXOX.  Ko 

of  that  which  his  countrymen  had  talked  over 
when  Condert  saw  them  on  the  steamboat. 
He  was  crossing  the  country,  not  very  far 
from  the  place  where  they  were,  when,  at  a 
junction,  it  was  necessary  for  him  to  sit  up  five 
or  six  hours  at  a  railroad  station  to  wait  for  a 
train.  One  would  say,  there  was,  of  course,  no 
provision  by  which  he  could  even  lie  at  length. 
As  he  said,  if  he  could  have  gone  to  sleep,  he 
should  not  have  been  in  prison.  He  was  forced 
by  the  regulations  of  the  place  to  sit  bolt  up- 
right on  a  seat,  which  was  provided  with 
arms,  apparently  with  the  fear  that  anybody 
would  lie  down  in  a  station-house,  which  was 
built  for  the  purpose  of  travellers  spending  half 
the  night  there.  Bolt  upright  in  this  way  he 
sat,  and  from  the  window  he  saw  lights  mov- 
ing in  a  way  that  would  have  arrested  any 
man's  curiosity,  for  he  saw  that  whoever  was 
handling  them  was  trying  to  conceal  his  mo- 
tions, and  that  for  no  good  end.  To  tell  very 
briefly  the  story,  which  he  told  Coudert  at 
great  length,  when  he  was  sure  that  Coudert 
was  his  friend,  he  saw  that  there  was  an  at- 
tempt made  to  set  fire  to  the  wood-yard  of  the 


166  SYBIL    KNOX. 

station.  At  once  lie  went  to  communicate 
what  he  had  learned  to  the  ticket-master,  to 
find  that  there  was  no  ticket-master  on  hand. 
It  proved,  indeed,  as  the  story  went  on,  that 
the  ticket-master  himself  was  the  person  who 
was  engaged  in  starting  the  fire.  Then  Berlitz 
ran  out  to  give  an  alarm  in  the  neighborhood  ; 
but  at  that  moment  the  sudden  blaze  seemed 
to  make  it  necessary  that  he  should  give  more 
practical  attention  to  the  conflagration  itself. 
Then  it  was  that  he  had  been  suddenly  knocked 
down,  had  lost  his  senses  for  a  little,  and,  after 
lie  recovered,  the  firemen  of  the  village  were 
beginning  to  assemble,  and  Berlitz  was  no  more 
than  anybody  else  was. 

The  upshot  of  it  all  was  that  when,  on  the 
next  morning,  he  told  his  story,  he  found  him- 
self arrested  as  the  man  who  had  set  the  build- 
ing on  fire,  and  at  the  trial  his  own  assevera- 
tions of  innocence  had  gone  for  but  little. 
There  being,  however,  no  practical  evidence 
against  him,  except  that  he  was  found  on  the 
ground  with  a  heavy  bruise  on  his  head,  the 
judge  had  made  his  sentence  shorter  than  that 
of  the  real  incendiary,  who  had  been  sentenced 


SYBIL   KXOX.  167 

to  five  years,  while  Berlitz*  s  sentence  was  for 
two  only. 

Coudert  now  made  it  his  business  to  ascer- 
tain, as  well  as  he  could,  what  conld  have 
been  the  motive  with  which  the  real  incen- 
diary had  addressed  himself  to  his  work. 
Why  should  the  ticket-master  of  a  station  un- 
dertake to  barn  down  the  property  of  his 
employers  ?  All  his  at  tempts  to  draw  anything 
from  the  man  himself  were  perfectly  futile. 
He  evidently  did  not  mean  to  *•  give  himself 
away."  Condert  talked  with  the  amiable 
idealist  who  managed  the  prison  with  absolute 
nicety.  But  he  found  in  him  a  man  who  re- 
garded all  persons  as  equally  criminal  and 
equally  innocent.  He  spoke  of  them  all,  as  if 
they  were  the  subjects  of  disease,  and  as  if 
this  attack  of  incendiarism  might  have  come 
upon  this  man  as  a  nervous  headache  comes 
upon  a  woman,  or  an  attack  of  colic  upon  a 
child  who  has  eaten  green  fruit.  He  hoped 
that  both  the  prisoners  would  recover  from 
their  illness,  before  the  terms  of  their  imprison- 
ment were  over,  and  for  the  rest  it  was  hardly 
worth  while  to  inquire  as  to  their  particular 


168  SYBIL    KNOX. 

symptoms  or  what  had  aggravated  them. 
Coudert  left  the  prison,  promising  Berlitz  to 
correspond  with  him,  and  disposed  himself  to 
go  to  the  seat  of  government  of  the  State,  to 
have  some  conversation  with  the  attorney- 
general,  whose  services,  as  he  was  glad  to  find, 
had  been  called  in  in  the  prosecution  of  per- 
sons arrested  under  circumstances  so  re- 
markable. 


CHAPTER  XT. 

MBS.  KXOX  was  more  annoyed  than  the 
occasion  would  seem  to  demand,  by  the 
intimation  in  John  Coadert's  letter  thai  she 
was  not  Mrs.  Knox.  but  was  Mrs.  Somebodyelse. 
The  girls  who  were  visiting  her  observed  that 
she  was  silent  that  evening.  She  did  not  join 
them  in  the  morning  when  they  read  aloud, 
and  in  the  afternoon  she  let  them  go  to  drive 
without  her.  Instead  of  going  to  drive,  she 
walked  down  to  Mrs.  Carrigan's.  Between  the 
two  there  had  been  gradually  growing  np  a  real 
friendship— a  friendship  which  was  more  than 
an  accidental  intimacy,  and  more  even  than  a, 
of  tastes.  But  this  was  the  first 
that  Mrs.  Knox  had  fairly  tested  it.  She 
did  so  now  with  great  rclnctar.ce,  but  she  felt 
that  she  was,  so  to  speak,  "in  foriiL"  If  she 
fired  in  Albert  on,  she  must  hare  the  absolute 
confidence  of  some  one  in  Atherton,  and  she  felt 
sure  of  Jane  Camgan.  She  must  teH  some- 


170  SYBIL   KNOX. 

body  about  her  annoyance,  and  she  would 
trust  this  new  friend. 

Mrs.  Carrigan,  of  course,  was  not  alone. 
Who  had  ever  found  her  alone  ?  There  was 
a  great  group  of  the  guests  and  the  guests' 
friends  and  the  friends  of  the  guests'  friends, 
sitting  on  the  piazza  or  lying  in  the  hammocks 
or  on  the  grass,  some  of  them  pretending  to 
watch  a  lawn-tennis  party  which  was  imme- 
diately below.  The  Carrigan  house  was  one  of 
the  wonders.  It  had  been  said  at  one  time, 
that  if  anybody  went  to  tea  with  Colonel  Car- 
rigan, he  built  an  extra  room  at  the  end  of  the 
house,  so  that  he  could  ask  them  to  make  n 
long  visit.  The  house  had  that  look  of  growth 
which  makes  a  country  house  so  charming. 

Mrs.  Knox  sat  for  a  little  in  the  shade, 
watching  the  tennis-players,  and  took  the  cup 
of  tea  which  Mrs.  Carrigan  had  ready  for  her 
and  for  forty  other  people  ;  but  as  she  went 
across  for  a  second  lump  of  sugar  she  bent 
over  enough  to  say, "  I  want  to  see  you  alone." 
Accordingly,  in  a  little  they  were  alone, 
without  anybody  missing  either  of  them,  in 
that  nice  corridor  which  runs  out  at  the  side 


SYBIL    K3TOX.  171 

of  the  north  LL  Then  Sybil  Knox  told  her 
friend,  in  as  few  words  as  she  could,  what  she 
had  heard— namely,  that  she  was  married  to 
somebody,  she  did  not  know  whom,  and  she 
did  not  know  how  the  story  had  started. 

fifing*""^  bnt  with  the  tears  running  down 
her  face,  she  said,  "I  heard  all  this  twenty- 
four  hours  ago.  I  slept  very  little  last  night, 
and  I  have  come  to  you.  Everybody  knows 
more  about  my  affairs  than  I  know  myself. 
What  am  I  to  do  to  contradict  it ! " 

But,  to  her  real  relief,  she  found  Mrs.  Car- 
rigan  as  much  surprised  as  she  was.  She  sat 
up  in  the  hammock  in  which  she  had  stretched 
herself,  almost  rose  to  her  feet,  and  simply  said. 
"  An  enemy  has  done  this."  Then  in  a  flash 
she  added,  "  That  is  impossible,  my  dear  child, 
for  you  have  not  an  enemy  in  the  world/" 

"That  is  just  what  I  should  have  said  my- 
self," said  Sybil  Knox.  "I  am  not  in  the 
habit  of  thinking  I  have  enemies.  I  do  not 
know  how  anybody  could  have  started  such  a 
rigmarole  story.  Bnt  this  gentleman  who 
writes  me— I  may  as  well  tell  you  who  he  is  ; 
he  is  a  Mr.  Coudert,  an  intelligent  Pennsyl- 


172  SYBIL   KNOX. 

vania  man  whom  I  saw  a  good  deal  in  Italy — 
he  is  not  a  fool.  He  would  not  have  written 
as  he  did  unless  this  story  were  quite  well 
started.  This  man  heard  it  at  Memphis.  I  do 
not  so  much  as  know  where  Memphis  is.  I 
did  not  suppose  that  anybody  in  Memphis  had 
ever  heard  my  name.  Do  you  really  think  it 
was  in  the  newspapers  ?  " 

For  Sybil  Knox  still  had  that  exaggerated 
sense  of  the  importance  of  the  newspaper, 
which  people  are  apt  to  have,  who  have  lived 
in  Europe*. 

"Oh,  my  dear  child,  you  take  it  quite  too 
seriously.  Suppose  it  had  been  in  the  news- 
paper ?  Suppose  that  the  newspaper  had  said 
that  you  had  set  fire  to  Atherton,  and  that 
Atherton  was  burned  down  ?  This  would  not 
have  been  a  nine  days'  wonder.  Half  the 
people  in  the  world  would  not  have  seen  it. 
Half  the  remainder  would  not  have  read 
it.  Half  those  who  read  it  would  have  for- 
gotten it.  Half  those  who  did  not  forget  it 
would  have  disbelieved  it.  And  by  the  time 
that  the  next  newspaper  was  printed,  it  would 
not  have  been  even  worth  the  while  of  those 


SYBIL    KXOX.  173 

leaders  of  public  opinion,  to  mention  the  fact 
that  the  facts  that  they  communicated  the 
day  before  were  all  nntrne.  I  do  not  think  I 
should  be  annoyed  if  it  were  in  the  news- 
paper. 

"Bnt  probably  it  is  in  the  mouth  and  at 
the  pen's  end  of  some  first-rate  letter  writer. 
Who  can  there  be  within  a  hundred  miles  of 
here  who  would  have  started  any  such  story  i " 
and  for  a  moment  there  was  silence. 

Sybil  Knox  broke  it.  "  Has  there  been  any 
such  story  here  ?  Tell  me  that.  Has  anybody 
said  that  I  have  been  flirting  with  anybody  \ 
I  may  as  well  say  that.  Whom  is  there  to 
flirt  with  except  your  husband  and  Dr. 
Moody?" 

"My  child,"  said  the  sympathetic  lady 
again,  "you  are  quite  right  there.  How 
could  you  flirt  where  there  is  nobody  to  flirt 
with  i  That  is  one  of  the  minor  advantages 
of  New  England  life  at  this  time.  Every  boy 
goes  to  Yokohama  or  to  Duluth  or  to  Callao 
before  he  is  seventeen  years  old,  and  the 
women  are  left  to  flirt  with  each  other.  In 
this  town  we  have  had  no  man  but  Tom  Grin- 


174  SYBIL    KNOX. 

nell,  who  is  crazy,  and  Ethan  Allen's  grand- 
nephew's  brother-in-law,  who  is  in  the  poor- 
house,  and  Dr.  Moody,  as  you  say,  and  poor 
Horace  Fort.  We  have  had  nobody  else  to 
flirt  with  for  years." 

As  she  said  the  last  words  her  voice  wavered, 
and  Mrs.-  Knox  knew  that  it  wavered.  Mrs. 
Carrigan  felt  it,  too,  and  her  face  flushed  ;  so 
that,  instead  of  answering  this  jesting  speech 
as  she  would  have  done,  Sybil  Knox  said, 
"What  are  you  thinking  of?  What  do  you 
mean  ? " 

"Murder  will  out,  my  dear.  I  had  forgot- 
ten it  entirely  ;  but  the  first  day  that  you 
were  in  Atherton,  Horace  Fort  came  into  your 
parlor  in  his  shirt-sleeves." 

"To  be  sure  he  did,"  said  Sybil  Knox, 
"  and  if  nobody  ever  taught  him  manners  be- 
fore, he  got  a  lesson  from  me  which  I  do  not 
think  he  forgot.  Anyway,  I  have  seen  Horace 
Fort  but  twice  from  that  day  to  this  day. 
And  on  neither  of  them  did  he  ask  me  to 
marry  him,  and  on  neither  of  them  did  I  go 
to  the  altar  with  him,  as  your  friends  of 
the  newspapers  say.  You  do  not  think  that 


SYBIL   KXOX.  175 


I  am  Mrs.  Horace  Fort  without  knowing 
it!" 

Mrs.  Carrigan  laughed,  and  it  was  an  un- 
constrained laugh-  Still  she  said,  "You  are 
so  quick,  you  saw  that  my  voice  broke  when 
I  spoke  his  name.  It  must  be  confessed  that. 
in  the  two  weeks  after  your  arrival  here,  Ather- 
ton  talked,  in  the  select  society  of  the  place,  of 
your  old  school  acquaintance  with  Horace 
Fort." 

"  This  is  what  they  meant,"'  said  poor  Sybil, 
"  when  they  told  me  at  Rome  that  I  could  not 
live  in  Atherton,  or  in  any  other  country  town. 
for  three  months.  I  did  not  believe  them. 
At  the  worst,  I  supposed  that  such  talk  would 
handle  the  dresses  I  wore,  or  the  subjects  I 
talked  about.  I  did  not  think  that  I  was 
actually  going  to  have  my  name  changed 
for  me  without  being  consulted." 

"  Do  not  be  too  hard  on  us,"  '  said  Mrs.  Car- 
rigan. i4I  must  say  you  have  been  worse 
treated  than  ever  I  was.  I  believe  they  did 
say  that  my  grandfather  was  a  Tory  and  tried 
to  betray  George  Washington  to  be  hanged  by 
somebody.  But  before  they  had  got  that  story 


176  SYBIL    KNOX. 

well  started,  it  turned  out  that  my  grandfather 
was  a  pirate  and  had  been  himself  hanged  at 
Tyburn  or  somewhere  else  ;  and  before  I  could 
look  up  the  executions  of  the  last  century  they 
doubted  whether  I  had  any  grandfather.  But 
I  never  gave  Atherton  the  credit  for  this,  and 
after  a  little  I  settled  down  into  a  staid  inhabi- 
tant of  the  place,  and  I  get  along  here  quite 
as  well  as  I  should  get  along  in  Washington 
or  in^Rome." 

Mrs.  Knox  hardly  listened  to  this  rather  ex- 
aggerated talk  of  her  friend,  who  was  really 
only  trying  to  divert  her.  "Do  not  let  us 
bother  ourselves  about  how  it  happened,"  she 
said.  "What  in  the  world  am  I  to  do  to  con- 
tradict it  ?  Shall  I  ask  Colonel  Carrigari  to 
put  a  notice  in  the  newspapers  to  say  that 
Sybil  Knox  has  not  been  married  and  does 
not  propose  to  be?" 

"  My  dear  child,"  said  her  friend  again, 
"  my  husband  says  he  does  nothing.  He  has 
been  in  public  life  now,  as  you  know,  for 
nearly  forty  years.  He  says  he  has  never 
replied  to  anything  in  that  time,  and  he  has 
found  that  a  good  rule.  He  puts  all  anony- 


177 


moos  tetters  into   the  fire  without 

;  he  does  not  look  at  the  marked  news, 
which  fltnatnred  people  send  to  him ; 
and  if  anybody  in  the  Legislature  says  fee  is  a 
swindler  and  a  murderer,  he  does  not  call  at- 
tention to  that  remark  by  bringing  proof  tint 
it  is  untrue,  I  think  that  his  role  will  be  a 
good  enough  role  for  yon." 

And  with  snch  half-way  comfort  did  poor 
Sybil  Knox  return  to  entertain  her  young 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

MRS.  CARRIGAN  had  assumed  a  lighter 
tone  than  her  friend .,  expected,  and  it 
represented  much  less  than  she  felt.  For  Mrs. 
Knox  had  more  than  once  spoken  of  the  dan- 
ger of  gossip  in  such  life  as  theirs.  "  She  has 
it  on  the  brain,"  Jane  Carrigan  had  said,  "and 
it  is  a  shame  that  some  snobbish,  travelling 
fool,  who  knows  as  little  of  New  England  as  I 
know  of  Thibet,  should  have  frightened  her." 
More  than  once  she  had  resolutely  declared  to 
Mrs.  Knox  that  the  gossip  of  Atherton  was  as 
harmless — nay,  as  infrequent — as  that  of 
Washington  or  of  Paris.  And  now,  in  the 
face  of  such  declarations,  here  was  her  friend 
wounded — and  no  wonder — wounded  by  a 
story  which  would  make  her  think  that 
Atherton  was  another  Little  Pedlington  or 
Eatonsville. 

She  took  a  night  to  sleep  over  the  story,  as 
Sybil  Knox  had  done.     She  said  nothing  of  it 


SYBIL   KXOX.  179 

to  her  husband  nor  to  the  council  of  her  chil- 
dren. But  the  next  morning  when  her  dinner 
was  ordered  and  her  Balds  encouraged  fertile 
day,  when  she  bad  had  a  chat  with  her 
batcher,  had  said  something  pleasant  to  Mi?. 
Peth,  who  brought  round  fresh  com  and  lima 
beans,  had  praised  Cephas  Gershom,  who  came 
with  the  *££<  had  consulted  (Hirer  about  the 
weather,  when  he  brought  her  a  string  of  fish, 
after  she  bad  been  recalled  to  the  side  door 
twice  to  say  how  man  j  quarts  of  berries  she 
would  hare  from  the  Ames  children,  and  to 
thank  Mrs.  Coranv,  who  had  stopped  with  a 
fine  bunch  of  cardinal  flowers,  she  letiied  to 
her  own  room,,  called  Florence,  her  oldest 
daughter,  and  sat  at  her  davenport.  Florence 
came,  looking  a  little  frightened.  She  knew 
that  something  was  the  matter,  and  she  and 
her  sister  Maria  hadiainly  tried  to  guess  what. 
Her  mother  told  her  briefly,  but  with  memre 


is  quite  a 

could  wish.  Here  is  the  advantage  of  taking 
youth  into  one's  counsels— you  are  sure  of 
sympathy,  and  it  does  not  hesitate  in  its  ex- 


180  SYBIL  KNOX. 

pressions.  But  it  was  clear  enough  that  Flor- 
ence was  taken  by  surprise  as  much  as  her 
mother.  She  expressed  bitter  and  hot  indig- 
nation. But  she  did  not  pretend  even  to 
guess  where  that  indignation  should  fall. 

"No,"  said  her  mother,  after  a  little;  "I 
do  not  see  that  we  can  do  anything.  If  I 
asked  your  father  he  would  say  I  could  do 
nothing.  I  do  not  think  I  can.  All  the  same 
I  am  going  to  tell  the  girls.  It  will  be  a  warn- 
ing another  time.  And  I  know  I  can  rely  on 
them." 

Florence' s  face  flushed  with  pleasure.  ' '  I 
am  so  glad  you  say  that :  I  wanted  to  propose 
it,  but  I  did  not  dare  do  it." 

"No,"  said  her  mother;  "and  nobody  but 
you  and  I  would  dare  to  do  it."  Then,  after 
a  pause,  she  added  fondly,  "Nobody  knows 
the  girls  as  well  as  you  and  I  do.  We  will  at 
least  have  the  pleasure  of  seeing  that  there  are 
nine  women  in  Atherton  who  are  not  fools, 
even  if  they  are  women.  And  our  secret  will 
not  burn  us  to  death,  if  the  others  help  us 
throw  back  the  coals  into  the  fireplace." 

So  Mrs.  Carrigan  took  from  her  desk  a  quire 


STBBL  K3TOX.  1  f  1 

ot  paper  stamped  with  a  silver  cross  and  the 
words  SBBD  ME.    She  wrote  this  note : 


DEAR  HUXBAH  :  It  is  I  who  want  you  this 
afternoon  if  you  can  come.    Thimble. 
Truly  yours, 

THE  CHIEF. 

Of  this  note  she  made  two  copies ;  Florence 
made  three,  all  directed  to  different  young 
friends,  But  Mr?.  Csrrigan  signed  all.  and  wiifa 
her  own  hand  made  a  Maltese  cross  at  the  bot- 
tom, and  wrote  the  letters  L  H.  X.  The  six 
notes  went  to  the  postofficeat  once,,  and  so  each 
of  these  girls  receired  her  summons  when  the 
day's  mail  came  ap.  the  arrival  of  which  was 
the  event  of  the  day  for  every  one  in  Atherton. 

And  each  girl  reported  in  the  afternoon  with 
her  thimble.  The  order  of  "c  Send  Me"  is  an 
order  of  women,  of  which  the  several  societies 
number  five  in  some  places  and  fifty  in  others. 
It  means  work  and  not  play,  and  its  members 
are  pledged  to  go  where  they  are  sent,  if  the 
Grand  Master  seems  to  need  their  services. 
The  girls  were  punctual  at  Mrs.  CarriganX 


182  SYBIL    KNOX. 

and  they  masked,  sufficiently  well,  their  curios- 
ity as  to  the  cause  of  the  summons.  More 
than  one  of  them  had  given  up  some  promis- 
ing plan  for  personal  pleasure,  that  she  might 
come. 

"We  will  finish  the  flannels  for  the  dispen- 
sary," their  hostess  said,  so  soon  as  she  had 
welcomed  the  last  comer,  and  as  they  had  all 
sung  a  hymn.  "  Huldah,  dear,  give  me  that 
petticoat.  I  had  it  last  week,  and  I  can  talk 
better  when  I  sew." 

Then  she  told  to  them  in  substance  what  she 
had  told  to  Florence.  She  did  not  pledge 
them  to  secrecy.  She  knew  perfectly  well  that 
no  word  spoken  in  that  room  would  be  re- 
peated elsewhere,  if  by  any  possibility  it  could 
give  any  pain  to  any  one,  and  that  nothing 
said  here  would  be  repeated  for  the  mere  sake 
of  talking.  These  fine  young  women  had  not 
been  under  her  eye  in  Sunday  School,  in  sum- 
mer amusement  and  in  winter  study,  and  es- 
pecially in  the  somewhat  serious  talk  and 
work  of  "Send  Me,"  without  her  feeling  sure 
that  she  could  trust  them  as  she  would  trust 
herself.  "And  now,  girls,"  she  said,  "  I  have 


SYBIL  KXOX.  IS: 


•eat  for  you  because  I  do  not  want  to  suffer  as 
much  mortification  as  I  hare  suffered  since  this 
time  yesterday,  without  telling  my  best  friends 
of  my  sufferings."  And  here  she  had  from 
each  a  tender,  perhaps  a  tearfuL  smile,  and, 
from  each  of  the  two  girls  who  sat  next  her. 
the  touch  of  a  hand  interrupted  the  somewhat 
perfunctory  stitching  of  the  flannel.  "Yes, 
dear  girls,  I  was  sure  of  your  sympathy.  I 
knew  that  a  good  object-lesson  like  this  would 
help  us  in  our  determination  to  keep  our 
tongues  dean  :  but  I  did  not  think  we  needed 
that.  I  did  think,  besides  this,  that  perhaps 
we  might  find  out  something,  and  do  some- 
thing to  check  this  mischief.  Does  any  one 
of  yon  know  anybody  in  Memphis !  Can  any 
of  you  guess  if  Atherton  has  a  private  corre- 
spondence there!*' 

X  ;  none  of  the  girls  could  do  that.  But 
Laura  said,  with  a  certain  simplicity  which 
was  especially  her  own,  "  I  had  just  as  lief  ask 
Mrs.  Edwards  if  she  has  any  friends  there." 

They  all  laughed.  For  every  one  of  the 
nine — Mrs.  Carrigan.  her  two  daughters,  and 
the  rest  of  the  order— knew  that  the  first  step 


184  SYBIL    KNOX. 

in  tins  bit  of  annoying  gossip  was  taken  by 
Mrs.  Edwards,  when  she  reported  Horace 
Fort's  presence  in  the  Atherton  house.  And 
every  one  believed  that  this  same  Mrs.  Ed- 
wards had  done,  for  this  poor,  naked  little 
anecdote,  other  things  in  the  way  of  providing 
for  its  growth,  and  of  clothing  it  and  setting  it 
on  its  travels. 

They  all  laughed.  But  Jane  was  the  first  to 
speak,  and  she  spoke  seriously.  "Poor  Mrs. 
Edwards  !  You  will  not  find  her." 

"  Where  is  she  ?" 

"  She  has  gone  to  Montpelier." 

"Montpelier!  She  told  me  she  expected 
friends,  those  Chisholm  girls  from  Painted 
Post." 

"I  do  not  know  whether  they  are  coming. 
I  know  she  has  gone  to  Montpelier.  She  came 
to  see  my  father  about  it." 

"About  what?"  Then  Jane  looked,  as  if 
to  ask  permission  from  the  president  of  the 
order.  Mrs.  Carrigan  repeated  the  question, 
and  Jane  took  this  as  permission  from  her  chief 
to  go  on. 

"  Her  son  is  in  jail,  waiting  a  meeting  of  the 


SYBIL   KXOX.  IS."- 

grand  jury.  She  came  to  my  father  to  ask 
him  to  give  bail  for  him ;  and  he  went  with 
her  yesterday  morning.  But,  of  course,  I  said 
nothing.  It  must  be  in  the  paper  by  this 
time." 

And  then  it  appeared  that  this  poor  Mrs. 
Edwards,  who  had  started  the  Horace  Fort 
story,  had  started  one  story  too  many.  This 
boy  of  hers  had  been  at  home  on  the  Fourth  of 
JnlJ-,  and  he  had  talked,  in  his  grand  way, 
about  what  the  firm  was  doing,  and  what  the 
cashier  of  the  bank  said,  and  what  the  teller 
replied,  and  what  the  president  had  done. 
And  Mrs.  Edwards  repeated  much  more  than 
she  understood,  very  much  more  than  she 
knew.  The  same  Russian  scandal,  which  had 
married  Sybil  Knox,  had  now  made  so  much  of 
this  story  that  the  bank  commissioner  had 
pounced  on  the  bank  itself,  when  no  one  ex- 
pected him.  Nothing  was  the  matter,  prob- 
ably, but  officials  and  all  were  made  angry, 
and  the  only  result  of  the  investigation  had 
been  that  this  boy  Jairus  and  his  employers 
had  been  called  to  account  for  certain  transac- 
tions of  the  head  of  the  firm,  who  was  at  this 


186  SYBIL   KNOX. 

moment  in  Oregon.  The  boy  had  contra- 
dicted himself  in  his  cross-examination  before 
the  magistrate,  which  was,  indeed,  very  cross, 
and  now  he  had  been  arrested  on  a  charge  of 
perjury. 

All  which  was  due  directly  to  Mrs.  Ed  wards' s 
improvement  of  one  of  the  boy's  braggadocio 
stories.  He  had,  alas !  been  brought  up  in 
the  habits  of  his  mother.  He  had  told  some 
things  he  had  seen,  and  some  which  he  had 
guessed.  His  mother  had  repeated  these  to 
friends  of  her  own  sort,  who  had  repeated 
them  with  advantage  to  theirs.  The  story 
had  then  fallen  into  the  hands  of  one  of  the 
"reportorial  staff"  of  the  Spread  Eagle,  who 
was  engaged  in  reporting  a  base-ball  game  at 
Atherton.  He  was  also  a  "  space  writer  "  for  a 
"  Metropolitan  Journal."  one  of  those  papers 
which  tell  you  that  the  Emperor  William  has 
been  impressed  by  what  the  Notary  Public 
has  said  about  his  Catholic  policy,  and  has 
taken  its  advice. 

Among  them  all  a  fine  story  had  been  got  up 
for  the  benefit  of  as  honest  a  set  of  directors 
as  you  could  find  in  Vermont,  which  is  to  say 


SYBIL    K>*OX.  187 

in  the  world.  The  bank  commissioner  had 
done  his  duty  promptly,  and  the  npshot  of  it 
all  was,  that  Master  Jairns  Edwards  now  had 
an  opportunity  to  lament  his  indiscretions, 
and  to  relate  his  adventures,  within  the  four 
walls  of  a  jail. 

Mrs.  Carrigan  drew  these  particulars  from 
Jane,  so  far  as  she  knew  them,  only  by  the 
closest  cross-examination.  So  soon  as  she 
knew  the  facts  she  said,  "  I  am  so  glad  I  made 
you  come  here,  my  poor  child.  For,  with  Mrs. 
Edwards  away,  I  should  not  have  known  this 
for  a  week.  Are  you  sure  about  the  bonds- 
men ?  Do  they  not  want  two  ?  I  should  do 
for  one.  I  hold  real  estate  of  my  own.  Or 
my  husband  would,  I  know.  Do  you  girls  go 
on  with  the  sewing.  He  has  just  come  home, 
and  I  will  ask  him." 

And  then  in  five  minutes  she  was  back  again. 
Jones  had  been  sent  with  a  telegram  to  Mr.  Grey 
at  Montpelier  to  say  that  Mr.  Canigan  would 
give  bonds  for  Jairus  Edwards,  if  he  were 
needed. 

"  So  that  matter  is  out  of  the  way,7'  said 
Mrs.  Carrigan.  as  she  came  back  to  the  party. 


188  SYBIL    KNOX. 

"Jane,  dear,  I  am  proud  of  my  god-child.  I 
wish  I  had  as  steady  a  head,  or  could  tell  a 
story  as  well  as  you,  without  telling  a  word 
too  much,  or  without  telling  it  when  I  ought 
to  hold  my  tongue. 

"  Sad,  though,  is  it  not,  that  this  innocent 
word  '  story,'  a  history,  should,  with  even 
little  girls,  come  to  mean  a  '  lie '  ?  Do  not  the 
children  now  hold  up  their  hands  and  say, 
4  Oh.  what  a  story  ! '  What  can  Oscar  Wilde 
mean  by  '  the  Decay  of  Lying '  ? 

"Do  you  know  what  Dr.  Stearns  told  me? 
He  says  that  the  old  fathers  used  '  f abula '  and 
' fabulare,' our  words  for  'fable'  and  'to  tell 
a  fable,'  when  they  were  talking  about  the 
histories  in  the  Bible.  He  says  it  is  only  by  a 
steady  law  of  decline  that  a  fable  comes  to  be 
something  untrue." 

"  As  gests  came  to  be  jests — something  real 
to  be  something  said  for  fun." 

"Why,  yes;  exactly  so.  'Behold  how 
great  a  matter  a  little  fire  kindleth  !  And  the 
tongue  is  a  fire.'  Girls,  we  will  have  that  as  a 
part  of  the  ritual  of  '  Send  Me,'  to  read  that 
passage."  And  she  took  down  her  Testament 


SYBLL   KXOX.  189 

and  made  Holdah  read  the  sixth  Terse  of  the 
third  chapter  of  James,  and  the  verses  which 
follow. 

4i  But  we  did  not  come  together  to  take  care 
of  Jairns  Edwards,  though  we  seein  to  have 
been  sent  about  that  business.  You  came  here 
to  comfort  me  in  my  distress.  That  YOU  have 
done.  But,  seriously,  I  called  you  to  see  if  we 
could  do  anything  about  it.  Mr.  Carrigan 
says  that  what  he  calls  an  •  overt  act  *  does  a 
person  in  trouble  more  good,  than  all  the 
respectful  sympathy  in  the  world  which  does 
not  express  itself.  In  fact,  my  husband  has  a 
great  contempt  for  people  •  who  cannot  express 
themselves.*  I  never  say  a  word  myself,  so 
that  I  do  not  always  agree  with  him.  But, 
simply,  I  feel  as  if  I  should  die  if  I  could  not 
make  poor  Sybil  feel  more  comfortably  about 
this  nonsense.  Why,  girls,  yon  cannot  think 
how  sensitive  she  is,  and  how  much  it  worries 
her.  And  those  hateful  old  Roman  women 
had  told  her  it  would  be  so  before  she  came 
here — Messalina,  and  Agrippina,  and  Lucrezia 
Borgia,  and  all  the  rest  of  them.  I  hate  them, 
and  I  always  did  : " 


190  SYBIL    KNOX. 

The  girls  laughed  heartily  at  her  inability 
in  the  arts  of  expression,  and  Maria,  repeating 
one  of  their  old  jokes,  said,  "How  fortunate 
it  is  that  no  one  can  say  anything  about 
us!" 

There  had  been  three  wonderful  maiden 
ladies,  whose  "united  ages,"  as  the  newspa- 
pers say,  were  seven  hundred  and  seventy- 
seven  years ;  they  were  the  very  oldest  people 
in  the  world.  Their  deeds  and  their  sayings 
had  supplied  Atherton  with  its  small-talk  for 
centuries  ;  when,  one  fine  afternoon,  one  of 
them  was  heard  to  ask,  "  What  can  anybody 
find  to  say  about  us  ?  " 

There  was  a  moment's  silence  now,  broken 
by  little  Mildred  Dawes,  who  said,  "Dear 
chief,  you  know  my  father  is  going  to  take  me 
to  Denver  ;  I  will  ask  him  to  stop  at  Memphis 
a  day,  if  that  will  do  any  good." 

This  was  so  exactly  like  Mildred  that  the 
girls  would  have  all  said  that  they  knew  it  was 
coming.  They  would  not  have  known  the  de- 
tail ;  but,  in  general,  she  was  always  thinking 
of  something  good-natured  she  could  do— nay, 
more  than  good-natured,  of  something  where 


SYBIL    KXOX.  191 

she  could  go  out  of  her  way  to  help  some  other 
girl  on  hers. 

"Xo,"  said  Huldah,  more  discreet  "for 
Memphis  is  only  an  accident.  He  was  there 
when  he  heard  it ;  that  is  all.  If  only  dear 
Mrs.  Knox  could  understand  that  very  few 
people  ever  heard  it,  that  nobody  believed  it, 
and  that  everybody  has  forgotten  it." 

"Exactly!"  said  Mrs.  Carrigan.  "I  am 
glad  to  see  the  good  sense  of  ninety  on  those 
shoulders  of  twenty.  Xot  in  vain  were  yon 
named  Hnldah  if  that  means  the  wise/* 

"As  it  does  not/'  said  Hnldah,  laughing. 
"  we  cannot  put  a  notice  into  the  personal  col- 
umn of  the  Eagle,  can  we.  to  say,  'Mrs.  Sybil 
Knox,  who  has  lately  arrived  at  the  ancestral 
seat  in  Atherton,  has  not  changed  her  name 
and  does  not  mean  to;'  and  then  send  that 
marked  to  Mr.  Condor.  Can  we,  Mrs.  Car- 
rigan!" 

"  His  name  is  Coodair,  my  dear,"  said  that 
lady,  who  had  only  heard  poor  John  Coudert's 
rather  unusual  name. 

"  We  could  not  kill  that  whipper-snapper 
who  edits  the  personal  column,  could  we  I  I 


192  SYBIL    KNOX. 

saw  him  at  the  picnic ;  he  wears  a  gold  chain 
and  a  satin  vest  and  a  loud  necktie  and  patent- 
leather  shoes?"  This  was  Laura's  question. 
"I  do  not  mean  'could  we.'  I  could  in  a 
minute  with  this  hair-pin,  and  I  would  gladly, 
but  for  a  shudder  as  to  what  would  happen  to 
him.  I  mean  '  might  one,'  under  the  laws  and 
constitution  of  Vermont?  I  am  sure  they  told 
us  something  at  school  about  prompt  action  in 
the  suppression  of  nuisances." 

"  Dear  child,  le  mieux  est  Tennemi  du  bon. 
It  is  a  cynical  maxim,  but  often  states  the 
Philistine  practical  consideration  for  the  hour. 
Atherton  is  not  an  ideal  town,  though  Ver- 
mont is  well-nigh  an  ideal  State.  We  are  here 
to  consider,  not  what  could  be  if  we  were 
angels  in  Paradise,  but  what  we  can  do  about 
it  on  this  particular  day  of  the  week." 

"  If  we  were  angels  in  Paradise  I  would  wear 
light  sandals,  instead  of  boots  with  heels." 

"I  would  have  my  skirts  shorter." 

u  Would  you  have  your  wings  white  or  rain- 
bow-color ?  Now,  that  petticoat  would  be  much 
more  welcome  at  the  dispensary  if  it  were  all 
the  colors  of  the  bow." 


STBTL    KXOX.  193 

"Cokes  of  the  pit,  more  likely.  That  is 
where  an  these  amline  colors  ct*iie  from." 

Desc^i  dear  aagek.  desceod  from  these 
heights  to  consider  daily  daty.  We  can  snob 
every  one  who  talks  about  the  Knox  house  or 
its  affairs." 

"Pear  aunty,  they  are  tired  of  that  ad- 
ready." 

"So  much  the  better,  my  dear.  Can  we  not 
start  them  on  something  else?" 

"On  the  fall  of  Constantinople!"  asked 
Hatty,  laughing.  She  had  not  spokes  before. 

"  Yes ;  if  nothing  better  turns  up." 

e-Mrs.  President."  said  Hatty  more  seri- 
ously. "  I  more  that  Mrs.  Sybil  Knox  be  in- 
vited to  take  the  sflrer  cross,  and  to  jam  Older 
Xo.73of  -Send  Me.'" 

"I  second  that  morion,"  said  Mary  Stiks. 

Mrs.  fij"^»»  ptfnsed  for  a  moment,  as  if  to 
invite  debate.  She  paused  so  long  that  the 
girls  who  had  made  and  mtxmJIad  the  Motion 
did  not  know  if  she  approved  of  it.  Bat  when 
she  spoke  it  was  to  say.  "Dear  girls,  you  are 
wiser  than  I  am,  though  perhaps  yon  do  not 
knowit.  One  way  is  to  stop  gossip  ; 


194  SYBIL   KNOX. 

way  is  not  to  listen.  The  Sirens  could  stop 
singing,  or  the  sailors  could  put  wax  and 
cotton  in  their  ears.  If  this  dear  lady  were 
only  in  a  tearing  eagerness  about  some  round 
peg  which  will  not  go  into  a  square  hole,  she 
would  forget  Horace  Fort  and  Mr.  Coodair 
and  herself — perhaps  would  even  forget  to 
look  at  her  mail ;  and  that  state  I  take  to  be 
the  Kingdom  of  Heaven. 

"For  there  ought  to  be  a  marginal  reading, 
at  least,  in  the  Bible,  where  it  says  that  about 
the  angels,  to  add  in  italics,  "they  neither 
receive  a  mail  nor  answer  letters." 

So  Mrs.  Knox  was  chosen  a  member  of 
"  Send  Me."  The  servant  announced  tea,  and 
it  was  high  tea. 

"  Tea  must  wait,  dear  girls,  till  we  have  done 
the  business.  The  doctor  says  that  Mrs. 
Winter's  eyes  will  do  well  enough,  but  he  will 
have  Dr.  Wadsworth  up  to  operate  on  Monday. 
For  three  weeks  her  eyes  must  be  bandaged. 
Some  one  ought  to  be  there  every  morning  and 
some  one  every  afternoon.  Think  who  can  go, 
and  put  down  the  names  here." 

So  the  girls  fell  to  talking  in  groups,  and  in 


SYBIL  KXOX.  195 

three  minutes  the  list  was  complete,  and  was 
lying  in  business-like  shape  on  the  davenport. 

Monday  morning.— Jane  Gray. 

Monday  afternoon. — Holdah  Wads  worth. 

Tuesday  morning.— Maria  Carrigan. 

And  so  on,  for  the  twenty-one  days  of  poor 
Mrs.  Winters  confinement. 

This  chapter  mnst  end  with  the  reply  to 
John  Couden's  letter : 

ATHERTOX.  August  17. 
DEAR  MR.  COUDZBT: 

I  was  glad  to  see  your  hand- writing,  though 
I  was  more  amazed,  amused,  and  provoked  than 
I  will  try  to  tell  you  by  the  ridiculous  story 
which  you  had  heard  at  Memphis,  but  which 
had  never  come  to  me. 

It  must  be  some  double  of  mine — some  other 
Mrs,  Knox— who  has  changed  her  name.  Pray 
do  me  the  favor  to  contradict  it  in  the  quarter 
where  yon  heard  it,  or  anywhere  else. 

I  do  not  know  how  to  thank  you  for  your 
care  about  our  poor  German  friends.  I  do 
hope  something  may  follow.  The  Frau  Berlitz 
is  with  me,  but  I  do  not  dare  tell  her  that  her 
husband  is  in  jaiL  And  I  must  thank  you, 
also,  for  watching  the  Cattaraugns  and  Ope- 


196  SYBIL    KNOX. 

lousas.  If  any  one  can  tell  me  what  to  do  I 
shall  be  sure  to  do  it ;  for,  indeed,  I  do  not 
know.  Truly  yours, 

SYBIL  KNOX. 


And  the  word  Knox  was  underlined. 

This  letter,  written  in  two  or  three  drafts, 
got  itself  finally  copied.  And  then  Mrs.  Knox. 
who  knew  perfectly  that  her  correspondent 
had  said  his  address  was  to  be  at  Pittsbnrg, 
for  she  had  read  his  letter  forty  times, 
addressed  him  at  Memphis.  The  letter  went 
to  the  Dead  Letter  Office,  and  was  never  seen 
by  him  or  by  her. 


CHAPTER  XYII. 

"TOHX  COUDERT  was  disappointed,  more 
fJ  than  he  liked  to  own  to  himself,  that  he  re- 
ceived no  word  from  Mrs.  Knox.  It  would  be 
fair  to  add,  perhaps,  that,  as  the  summer  and 
autumn  passed,  Mrs.  Knox  was  as  much  disap- 
pointed that  she  had  no  second  letter  from 
him.  In  such  matters  a  man  is  not  apt  to  have 
a  confidant.  Certainly  he  had  none.  Indeed, 
his  life  had  so  ordered  itself  that  he  had  few 
near  friends  anywhere.  And,  while  the  public 
trusts  which  he  held,  and  had  held,  brought 
him,  in  any  Northern  city,  into  companionship 
with  people  enough,  and  while  his  intelligence 
and  spirit  made  him  everywhere  a  favorite,  he 
had,  since  his  mother  s  death,  no  real  home 
anywhere  ;  nor  was  there  any  person  with 
whom  he  was  used  either  to  boast  of  his  fre- 
quent successes,  to  consult  in  his  difficulties,  or 
to  mourn  over  his  occasional  failures. 
He  owned  to  himself  that  he  loitered  in  beau- 


198  SYBIL    KNOX. 

tiful  Pittsburg  for  two  days,  when  his  busi- 
ness might  well  have  called  him  away. 
He  was  hoping  for  the  arrival  of  this  letter. 
There  are  charming  people  in  Pittsburg,  and 
beautiful  homes.  There  is  Mr.  Carnegie's 
library  at  Allegheny,  which  is  really  a  part  of 
Pittsburg,  and  a  man  might  find  himself 
waiting  in  many  worse  places,  for  a  letter  from 
the  woman  whom  he  loved.  John  Coudert  did 
his  best,  with  such  resources,  to  make  the 
time  go  by ;  but  he  could  not  make  a  letter 
come  to  Pittsburg  which  had  been  directed  to 
Memphis  ;  and  on  the  third  day  he  girded  up 
his  loins  for  the  battle,  for  which  he  had  now 
prepared  himself,  with  the  arch-enemy  of  the 
Cattaraugus  and  Opelousas  Railroad.  He  fol- 
lowed the  rule  which  his  friends  said  had 
governed  him  in  all  his  successes,  and  struck 
high. 

The  C.  &  O.  Road,  as  all  the  world  knows,  is 
not  in  Pennsylvania.  Unfortunately  for  him, 
it  does  not  pass  through  two  States,  or  he  could 
have  tried  the  chances,  respectable,  if  doubtful, 
of  the  Interstate  Commission.  As  it  was,  he 
knew  he  must  turn  to  the  State  authorities  in 


SYBIL    KXOX.  199 

the  State  where  his  little  line  tried  to  maintain 
an  independent  existence.  He  fortified  him- 
self  with  a  letter  of  introduction  to  the  gov- 
ernor, and  took  snch  a  train  that  he  might 
arrive  at  Franklin,  the  capital,  and  make  his 
first  visit  early  in  the  day.  He  promised  him- 
self a  good  deal  of  interest  in  this  visit.  Gov- 
ernor Xeedhanvs  name  had  been  known 
through  the  whole  country  by  the  courage  of 
his  canvass  and  its  bitterness.  By  some  arts 
or  methods,  variously  accounted  for.  according 
as  you  rate  the  infallibility  of  a  Blue  journal 
or  a  Green,  he  had  reversed  the  great  decision 
of  the  last  presidential  election,  and  had 
carried  the  State  for  himself  and  his  party  by  a 
sweeping  majority.  If  you  believed  the  Green 
infallibles  he  was  the  lowest  and  most  de- 
graded criminal  in  the  State.  When  he  was 
not  drunk,  he  was  at  the  card-table,  according 
to  the  Greens.  His  unscrupulous  conduct  of 
his  business  had  enriched  him,  or,  as  the  ele- 
gant Green  phrase  was,  had  "  filled  his  barrel," 
and,  according  to  the  Greens,  his  free  use  of 
this  barrel  had  purchased  the  suffrages  of  a 
community  of  utter  purity,  who  had  judged 


200  SYBIL    KNOX. 

everything,  only  two  years  before,  by  the 
highest  standards.  The  Blues,  on  the  other 
hand,  were  not  in  the  least  surprised  at  "  Ned 
Needham's"  success.  They  ascribed  it  to  a 
certain  bonhomie  of  his  bearing  with  hotel 
clerks  and  railroad  porters.  They  had  from 
the  first  pointed  out  to  the  world  that  if  his 
party  would  name  "jolly  Ned  Needham  "  as 
its  candidate,  and  would  set  aside  the  longer 
experience  of  Governor  Yin  ton,  or  the  tried 
statesmanship  of  Secretary  Macon,  all  would 
be  well.  And  as  the  party  had  taken  their 
counsel,  and  had  named  Ned  Needham,  of 
course  he  was  chosen.  Such,  severely  con- 
densed, were  the  two  notions  with  regard  to 
this  gentleman,  which  were  presented  to  the 
nation  by  the  newspapers.  For  his  election 
was  really  a  matter  of  national  importance. 
And  every  intelligent  man  had  reason  to  be 
curious  about  the  cause  of  what  implied,  per- 
haps, a  revolution  in  national  politics. 

As  for  John  Coudert,  he  was  a  man  of  too 
much  sense  and  experience  to  place  the  slightest 
confidence  in  either  statement  or  estimate. 
He  knew  perfectly  well  that  the  people  of  this 


SYBH.    KXOX.  201 

Slate  never  chose  a  fool  to  govern  it.  And 
he  did  not  believe  that  they  had  chosen  a 
knave.  Bat  he  was  very  curious  to  know  what 
manner  of  man  had  achieved  a  victory  so  re- 
markable. 

The  State  House  stood  in  a  beautiful  garden, 
laid  out  and  maintained  with  care,  which  was, 
apparently,  a  sort  of  lounging  place  for  the 
people  of  the  town.  Fountains  were  playing, 
and  seats  under  trees  accommodated  nurse- 
maids, while  children  played  with  their  horses 
and  wagons  on  the  gravel.  A  janitor,  in  the 
great  marble  hall  which  occupied  most  of  the 
lower  floor,  directed  Coudert  up  to  the  gov- 
ernors room.  He  had  little  time  to  examine 
the  great  paintings  between  which  he  passed, 
but  that  question  crossed  his  mind,  as  it  often 
does  in  such  places :  by  what  throw  of  a  dice-box 
is  it  that  one  of  such  pictures  shall  be  a  master- 
piece of  art,  and  the  picture  opposite  be  abso- 
lutely absurd  in  drawing  and  in  color!  Once 
at  the  head  of  the  great  stairway,  he  found  a 
negro,  sitting  at  a  little  writing  table  and 
reading  a  novel  Coudert  gave  him  his  card, 
and  asked  him  to  take  it  to  the  governor,  with 


202  SYBIL    KKOX. 

the  note  of  introduction  which  he  had  received 
from  Judge  Pringle.  This  was  the  only  cere- 
mony of  introduction  to  the  governor  of  a  State 
larger  than  Bavaria  or  Holland.  Coudert  re- 
membered, with  a  certain  amusement,  his  pres- 
entation to  Leopold  at  Brussels  the  last  year. 
In  a  moment  the  janitor  returned  with  a 
young  man  who  proved  to  be  one  of  the 
governor's  private  secretaries,  and  who  asked 
Mr.  Coudert  to  come  in.  They  passed  through 
a  large  empty  room,  which  the  young  man 
said  was  the  Council  Chamber,  and  so  came  into 
Governor  Needham's  private  parlor.  He  rose 
from  his  desk,  crossed  half-way  to  the  door, 
took  Coudert' s  hand,  and  led  him  to  a  chair. 
He  was  tall,  rather  delicate  in  aspect,  with  an 
elegant  bearing ;  his  features  were  finely  cut, 
and  he  carried  an  aspect  of  care,  almost 
amounting  to  anxiety,  curious  in  a  man  so 
young.  He  wore  a  light  linen  jacket,  for  the 
day  was  one  of  those  tremendously  hot  days  of 
early  September.  But  in  this  detail,  and  in 
every  other  detail,  his  costume  was  faultless. 
Such  were  Mr.  Coudert' s  first,  quick  observa- 
tions. 


SYBIL    KXOX.  203 

He  felt  at  once  a  certain  charm  in  the  gover- 
nor s  manner — the  cordiality  of  a  gentleman 
to  a  stranger,  cnrionsly  mixed  with  the 
dignity  of  a  man  who  was  representing  a 
State,  and  showing,  at  the  same  time,  an  in- 
terest  in  knowing  whether  the  stranger  had 
come  merely  to  **  do  the  town,"  or  upon  some 
errand  of  real  importance.  He  asked,  with 
evident  respect  and  interest,  after  Judge 
Pringle,  whose  letter  he  still  held  in  his  hand, 
and  then  paused,  with  that  air  which  says,  "It 
i^  your  turn  now ;  remember  that  we  are  all 
busy  here,  and  tell  your  story  as  quickly  as 
you  can." 

Coudert  knew  his  own  country  well  enough 
to  have  known,  as  he  came  up  the  steps  of  the 
grand  staircase,  that  he  was  not  going  to  speak 
to  any  second-rate  person.  But  he  felt  a  cer- 
tain sense  of  relief — the  feeling  as  if  his  battle 
were  already  half  won — when  he  looked  into 
the  open  face  and  saw  the  resolute  expression 
of  the  governor.  He  told  him,  in  severely  con- 
densed narrative,  for  which  his  long  journey 
had  given  him  hours  to  prepare,  why  he  was 
in  Franklin.  He  spoke  of  the  arch-enemy — 


204  SYBIL    KNOX. 

not  Satan,  but  that  son  of  Satan  who  was  try- 
ing to  wreck  the  railroad — as  if  all  men  knew 
his  character  and  his  purpose.  He  spoke  as 
you  might  speak  of  the  cholera,  of  a  cyclone, 
or  of  Satan  himself.  He  observed  that  "Ned 
Needham  "  did  not  intimate,  by  the  quiver  of 
an  eye-lash,  whether  he  accepted  this  view  of 
the  man  or  rejected  it. 

He  closed  his  story  by  saying,  "  I  have  come 
to  you  because  I  am  used  to  begin  at  the  top. 
I  know  you  have  thought  of  this  iniquity. 
You  may  know  how  it  is  to  be  beaten.  I  do 
not.  I  wish  I  did.  But  I  am  here  to  say 
that,  if  you  know,  and  if  the  State  wants  to  do 
anything,  here  am  I.  Send  me,  if  you  choose. 
In  a  fashion,  I  represent  the  lambs — the  stock- 
holders and  the  bond-holders,  '  the  widows  and 
orphans,'  as  you  say  in  legislatures — who  are 
pushed  to  and  fro  as  the  baccarat  counters  in 
this  thing." 

"Jolly  Ned  Needham"  heard  him  from 
beginning  to  end,  without  a  syllable,  without 
smile  or  frown,  and  without  even  that  quiver 
of  an  eye-lash.  He  looked  Coudert  in  the  face 
without  winking,  or  turning  his  eye  for  an 


SYBIL   ETOX.  205 

instant.  Condert  did  the  same  by  him. 
When  his  statement  was  finished,  for  half  a 
minute  there  was  silence. 

Then  the  governor  said,  "  Yon  are  the  Mr. 
Condert  who  represented  Xew  York  at  the  In- 
ternational 1 " 

John  Gondert  said  he  was. 

"  I  thought  so.  Featherstone,  whom  you  met 
there,  is  my  brother-in-law.  He  told  me  about 
you.  I  hare  always  wanted  to  know  you." 
Then  he  paused  again.  "Mr.  Coudert.  I  do 
not  know  what  you  believe,  but  I  think  your 
visit  is  providential.  Will  you  look  at  this 
letter  which  I  had  just  begun,  to  my  attorney- 
general?"  And  from  his  desk  he  handed 
him  the  sheet  on  which  he  had  been  writing. 

MY  DEAR  SCAKLETT: 

This  Opelousas  thing  must  be  straightened, 
if  we  all  swing  for  it.  I  am  not  governor  of 
this  State  in  vain.  I  know  that  he  who  fights 
the  devil  needs  long  tongs.  I  do  not  know  the 
length  of  mine,  but  I  do  know  what  my  grip  is 
when  I  take  hold.  Xow.  tell  me  three  things : 

First.  Is  there,  or  is  there  not,  law 
enough— 


206  SYBIL   KXOX. 

And  this  was  as  far  as  he  had  written.  '••  i 
had  come  so  far,"  he  said,  smiling  with  that 
exquisite  smile  which  would  have  led  almost 
any  woman  to  worship  him,  but  with  his  face 
still  as  firm,  not  to  say  as  relentless,  as  if  he 
had  been  Hildebrand.  "I  will  tell  you  what 
I  was  going  to  say." 

And  then  he  plunged  into  the  ins  and  outs 
of  the  iniquity.  He  discussed  legal  and  cpn- 
stitutional  questions  as  if  he  had  been  speak- 
ing before  the  full  bench  at  Washington,  and 
with  full  confidence  that  Coudert  followed 
him  in  the  finest  speculation  and  by  the  most 
delicate  deduction.  He  went  over  the  ground 
which  the  common  law  gave  them  ;  he  gave 
Coudert  just  a  hint,  but  enough  of  detail,  to 
show  what  their  own  courts  had  ruled,  and 
how  far  their  own  statutes  had  gone  ;  and  he 
cited,  as  if  they  had  been  the  Ten  Command- 
ments, the  few  recent  decisions,  all  too  few,  of 
the  English  and  American  courts  on  matters 
akin  to  those  in  hand.  "  I  had  even  thought 
of  proceeding  by  quo  warranto"  he  said. 
"What  my  number  three  would  have  been,  in 
this  letter,  was  to  ask  if  we  could  not  bring 


SYBIL.  KXOX.  i'  .'7 

before  our  Supreme  Court  sitting  in  equity, 
all  three  of  the  corporations — TOOTS,  poor 
lambs,*'  *nd  again  he  smiled,  '-and  these  your 
two  enemies — and  ask  them  all,  in  brief,  to 
ten  the  people  of  this  country  what  in  thunder 
they  are  doing,  and  what  reason  there  is  'why 
sentence  of  death  should  not  be  pronounced 
on  them.'  Qm»  warraate  has  its  uses,  though 
it  has  merer  been,  orer-popular.  Mr.  Condert." 

John  Condert  could  venture  to  smile  now. 
And  he  told  Idle  other  how  far  he  had  gone  in 
the  same  lin.es.  He  had  the  best  counsel  in 
WaU  Street  and  in  Philadelphia;  but,  alas! 
their  plans  did  not  agree  with  each  other. 
"But  you  win  be  glad  to  see  the  opinion  I 
hare  bom  Thayerand  from  Wirt,  for  it  is  pre- 
cisely your  own.  They  are  both  retained  for 
me.  But  if  you  could,  and  if  this  State  would, 
appear  distinctly  in  the  conduct  of  this  inquiry, 
of  course  we  should  ask  nothing  better,  and 
we  should  kave  the  whole  in  such  good  hands, 
Only *"  and  he  paused. 

"Only  r»  asked  the  goreraor,  with  that  air 
of  a  man  used  to  hear  the  whole  without  re- 


208  SYBIL    KXOX. 

"Only  I  was  wishing  that  you  were  your 
own  attorney-general,  or  your  own  chief- 
justice." 

"Better  as  it  is,  as  you  will  say  when  you 
know  them  both.  I  have  been  asking  myself 
now  whether  a  simple  grand  jury  inquest,  to 
try  your  arch- devil  as  conspiring  in  a  case  of 
arson  with  this  little  devil  in  the  House  of 
Correction,  might  not  be  the  shorter  way. 
Yes,  I  see  you  have  no  testimony  to  speak  of. 
But  there  are  two  verdicts.  There  is  the  ver- 
dict of  a  petty  jury  in  Butler  County,  which 
may  go  either  way  it  chooses.  There  is  the 
other  verdict  of  Public  Opinion,  Mr.  Coudert; 
and  by  Jove!  if  we  can  find  him  guilty  there 
this  country  shall  be  too  hot  to  hold  him,  and 
he  shall  finish  his  days  in  Fiji  Land.  That 
may  be  the  best  way. 

"I  will  tell  you,  Mr.  Coudert ;  let  me  tele- 
phone the  attorney-general  to  lunch  with  us. 
We  shall  only  have  Mrs.  Needham  and  the 
boys.  One  of  my  aids  here  shall  take  you  to 
see  the  Cascades  and  the  Museum  in  the  mean- 
time. You  are  at  the  St.  Clair?  Yes?  I  will 
call  for  you  at  one  ten  and  take  you  home 


STBEL  KXOJL  1   £ 

with  me.  Meanwhile  Miss  Francis  and  I  wfll 
finish  this  stuff.7*  He  did  not  so  much  as  wait 
for  the  other  to  accept  his  hospitalities.  The 
janitor  came  in.  "  Ask  Miss  Francis  to  come 
in,  and  Mr.  Willis.  Mr.  Willis,  hare  the 
goodness  to  telephone  to  Colonel  Wayne  to 
come  orer.  Here  is  the  Tribune,  Mr.  Coudert, 
and  the  World.  Xow.  Miss  Francis,  if  you 
please,"  and  he  began  reeling  off  his  letters  to 
the  stenographer,  who  had  come  in.  When,  in 
a  moment.  Colonel  Wayne  came  in.  he  only 
paused  long  enough  to  say,  "Colonel,  you  wfll 
be  glad  to  know  Mr.  Coudert.  .  It  is  John 
Coudert,  you  know.**  And  the  gentlemen 
shook  hands.  "  Mr.  Coudert  lunches  with  us. 
Try  to  amuse  and  edify  him  till  then.  Show 
him  the  serpent-mounds  and  the  cascades,  and 
everything  else  that  wfll  make  Mm  comfort- 
able. Does  Campbell  sit  to-day  i  ** 

The  colonel  said  no,  that  the  court  had  ad- 
journed over  a  week. 

•*  I  am  sorry  for  that :  I  wanted  you  should 
aee  Campbell  WeD,  Wayne,  see  that  you 
exalt  the  city  in  his  eyes,  and  make  us  glorious. 
He  may  write  a  book,  you  know.  Good  morn- 


210  SYBIL   KNOX. 

ing.  At  one  ten  sharp,  Mr.  Coudert."  And 
they  parted.  And  again  Coudert  remembered 
that  reception  by  the  King  of  Belgium,  and 
his  farewell  bow  there.  Before  they  were  out 
of  the  room  the  governor  was  dictating  again  : 
"cannot  be  supposed  to  imply,"  and  so  on, 
and  so  on,  in  that  dreary  business  of  working 
off  the  day's  mail. 


CHAPTER  XV  ILL 

• 

AT  nine  minutes  after  one,  John  Coudert 
^T\-  took  his  place  in  the  great  crowd  of 
loafers  and  travellers  who  sat  in  the  shady 
of  the  St.  Clair.  saying  but  little  to 
other,  but  watching  doggedly  the  gigantic 
thermometer  on  the  druggist's  shop  opposite, 
as  its  red  eolmnn  rose  higher  and  higher. 

At  exactly  ten  minutes  past  one,  Governor 
Needham  drove  up  to  the  steps  of  the  piazza. 
He  was  in  a  light  covered  boggy,  driving  a 
pair  of  beautiful  horses.  A  groom,  waiting 
under  the  piazza,  started  forth  to  take  the 
norses. 

"Thank  you,  Xathan,  no  ;  there  is  a  gentle- 
man here "  and  at  this  moment  John  Cou- 
dert presented  himself,  would  not  permit  the 
other  to  leave  die  carriage,  as  he  tried  to  do, 
mounted  himself,  and  they  were  off.  But,  as 
Coudert  could  not  help  seeing,  in  the  dozen 
for  this.  Ms  companion  had 


212  SYBIL    KNOX. 

recognized,  by  nod  or  glance,  half  a  dozen  of 
the  men,  who  had  pressed  forward  to  speak  to 
him.  He  hardly  spoke  to  anybody,  but,  still,  it 
seemed  to  each  man  that  he  was  the  one  person 
in  the  whole  number,  whom  the  governor 
was  particularly  glad  to  see.  In  a  moment  a 
gossamer  lap-robe  was  drawn  over  their  knees, 
and  the  handsome  bays  were  taking  them  up 
the  broad,  asphalt-paved  Franklin  Avenue, 
which  is  the  meridian  from  and  on  which 
the  latitude  and  longitude  streets  of  that  cap- 
ital are  measured. 

"It  is  easy  to  see  why  they  call  you  'jolly 
Ned  Needham,'  "  said  John  Coudert. 

The  governor  laughed  as  he  said,  "What 
stuff  they  write  and  talk !  I  do  not  suppose  a 
man  or  woman  believes  them.  Why  should 
not  a  fellow  speak  or  nod  in  a  good-natured 
way  to  everybody?  Are  we  not  each  other's 
keepers  ?  Where  in  thunder  should  I  be  now, 
or  you,  if  somebody  had  not  shod  these  horses, 
if  somebody  had  not  groomed  them,  if  some- 
body had  not  raised  the  corn  they  ate  this 
morning?  For  my  part,  I  am  very  glad  I  did 
not  have  to  do  these  things,  or  to  clean  the 


SYBIL    KSOJL.  213 


harness.  I  had  to  do  it  in  my  day.  My 
father,  who  was  a  man  of  sense,  swore  that  I 
should  never  ride  a  horse,  or  drive  one.  thongh 
there  were  twenty  in  his  stables,  unless  I  could 
groom  him  and  harness  him.  I  valued  much 
more  my  certificate  from  old  Dennis,  the  sta- 
ble-man, than  I  did  my  Bachelor  of  Arts 
diploma.  So.  as  I  say.  I  am  really  very  much 
obliged  to  the  people  who  do  those  things  for 
me,  I  know  I  could  do  it  for  one  of  them  if 
the  tide  turned  that  way." 

Then  he  paused  a  minute  and  went  on  : 
"  The  manners  of  a  country  where  everybody 
feels  the  mutual  dependence  will  always  be 
different  from  the  manners  of  a  country  gov- 
erned from  the  top.  For  my  part,  I  think  they 
are  better  manners. 

"And  that,  Mr.  Coudert,  is  the  whole  of 
what  the  newspapers  mean  when  they  talk  of 
<  jolly  Xed  Xeedhani,'  or  of  the  l  well-affected 
affability  of  the  governor.'  In  truth,  I  never 
asked  a  man  to  drink,  for  I  do  not  know  the 
taste  of  whiskey  or  beer  ;  and  so  I  never  of- 
fended any  other  man  by  not  asking  him.'' 

The  governor's    house  was,    perhaps,    two 


214  SYBIL   KNOX. 

miles  from  the  State  House,  'large  and  com- 
fortable, surrounded  with  "  a  shrubbery  which 
Shenstone  might  have  envied" — if  anybody 
knows  what  that  means — and  fairly  covered 
with  climbing  roses  and  honeysuckles  and  vines 
of  clematis,  still  in  bloom,  with  wistaria  in  its 
second  bloom.  A  bright  boy,  whom  Mr.  Need- 
ham  called  Harry,  one  of  his  sons,  came  run- 
ning out  as  the  bays  stopped,  and  himself  drove 
them  to  the  stable.  Mrs.  Needham  was  at  the 
door  to  welcome  them.  "Mr.  Scarlett  is  here," 
she  said,  "and  lam  so  much  obliged  to  you 
for  bringing  Mr.  Coudert.  Is  not  Mrs.  Cou- 
dert  with  you  ? "  she  said,  as  she  gave  him  her 
hand,  without  even  asking  an  introduction. 

Coudert  had  to  explain  that  there  was  no 
Mrs.  Coudert,  and  never  had  been  ;  he  did  not 
so  far  go  into  the  dark  chambers  as  to  add  that 
there  never  would  be.  Mrs.  Needham  asked 
him  if  he  would  go  to  his  room,  asked  her  hus- 
band when  Mr.  Coudert' s  trunk  would  come, 
and,  in  general,  took  it  for  granted  that  he  had 
"come  to  stay,"  as  the  fine  national  proverb 
puts  it.  He  was  himself  inwardly  surprised 
that  she  knew  him  so  well,  but  in  a  minute  it 


STBLL   K2TOT.  215 

appeared  that  there  was  a  telephone  between 
the  governor's  office  and  his  house,  and  that 
he  had  "called  up"- his  wife,  to  tell  her  who 
her  guests  would  be. 

Precisely  at  half-past  one  a  tidy  girl  an- 
nounced lunch.  Coudert  observed  that  she 
spoke  to  her  mistress  in  German,  and  that 
Mrs.  Keedham  replied  in  the  same  language. 
They  gathered  at  a  table  elegantly  furnished. 
in  a  luge  airy  dining-room,  and  Coudert,  who 
had  been  going  through  the  horrors  of  the  fly- 
aeason  at  crowded  hotels,  noticed  instantly 
that  there  was  not  one  of  the  pests  of  human- 
ity in  the  room.  He  thought  they  were  to 
talk  secrets,  and  he  saw.  therefore,  with  some 
surprise  that  the  elder  children  of  the  family 
gathered  with  them.  They  spoke  to  him 
modestly,  as  they  were  presented  to  him  by 
their  mother,  and  all  quietly  took  their  places 
at  the  table. 

In  the  exuberant  hospitality  of  the  valley  of 
the  Ohio  and  the  Mississippi,  there  is  but  little 
distinction  between  what  they  choose  to  call 
lunch  and  what  they  call  dinner.  In  fact, 
they  call  the  same  meal  lunch  or  dinner  as 


216  SYBIL   KNOX. 

they  are  speaking  to  one  or  another  person. 
Needham  had  asked  his  guest  to  "lunch," 
because  he  knew  he  came  from  the  East,  and 
might  be  used  to  dining  at  six  or  seven  o'clock. 
But  in  the  furnishing  of  the  table,  and  in  its 
service,  there  was  nothing  to  distinguish  it 
from  what  the  family  dinnerof  the  same  house 
or  the  same  place  might  have  been. 

So  soon  as  they  were  well  embarked  on  the 
business  of  eating,  Governor  Needham  said  to 
Mr.  Scarlett,  "Scarlett,  I  told  you  why  you 
were  sent  for..  Mr.  Coudert,  I  am  afraid,  has 
not  much  time  ;  certainly  you  and  I  have  not ; 
and  I  thought  we  could  talk  more  quietly  here 
than  at  the  office.  Mr.  Coudert,  you  need  not 
be  afraid  to  say  everything  here  ;  my  children 
and  my  wife  are  used,  to  hearing  secrets,  and 
we  can  go  over  all  these  matters  here  and  now. 
Tell  Mr.  Scarlett  what  you  told  me  this  morn- 
ing." And  then,  with  a  little  laugh,  "Scar- 
lett is  a  better  fellow  than  you  would  think, 
considering  the  company  he  keeps.  He  is 
attorney-general  because  he  ran  in  at  the  head 
of  Ms  ticket." 

And  Scarlett  laughed,  and  interrupted  to 


SYBIL  K3T03L  217 

say,  "As  the  governor  is  governor  because  he 
ran  in  at  the  head  of  his." 

The  governor  nodded  and  smiled,  and  went 
on,  "  Yes,  that:  is  the  reason  why  I  have  one 
of  these  rascals  of-the  opposition  to  be  my 
confidential  adviser  in  law.  But  Scarlett  and 
I  knew  each  other  long  ago.  We  have  met 
too  often  on  the  stomp  not  to  be  fond  of  each 
other,  and  I  win  not:  say  that;  the  machine  does 
not  ran  better  because  it  runs  on  two  wheels. 
Mow,  Scarlett,  you  mast;  talk  your  best  to  this 
man.  He  told  me  this  morning  dial  he  wished 
I  were  my  own  attorney-general.  That  is  a 
high  compliment,  and  yoa  must  make  him 
understand  that  we  can  go  one  better  than 
that." 

It  was  not  the  first  time  that  John  Coud-ert  had 
seen  that,  in  the  antagonisms  and  mysteries  of 
politics,  the  working  force  is  often  brought  for- 
ward in  a  way  that  the  theorists  would  not 
imagine  possible.  Here  were  two  men  who 
had  denounced  each  other's  parlies  on  the 
stump,  who  were  now  thrown  into  co-operation 
for  the  benefit  of  a  great  Stare,  and  who  knew 
to  co-operate.  When  the  admiral  of  a 


218  SYBIL    KNOX. 

fleet  and  the  field-marshal  of  an  army  have 
courage  and  mutual  respect  enough  to  carry  on 
a  joint  operation,  that  operation  succeeds. 
Such  mutual  confidence  has  not  often  shown 
itself  in  war,  and  that  is  the  reason  why  most 
wars  are  failures.  But  in  the  practical  affairs 
of  a  practical  people,  such  co-operation  as  had 
been  brought  about  here  has  more  than  once 
shown  what  it  is  to  live  under  the  government 
of  a  people  which  wants  to  "get  the  best." 

But  Coudert  did  not  stop  to  indulge  in 
political  speculation.  He  plunged  right  into 
his  story,  which  he  told  with  the  severe  brevity 
which  had  pleased  the  governor  in  the  morn- 
ing. The 'attorney-general  listened  carefully, 
occasionally  interrupted  him  to  ask  a  question, 
but  possessed  himself  of  the  leading  facts, 
which  Coudert  had  been  working  out  for  the 
whole  summer  ;  particularly  of  the  information 
he  had  received  at  the  Commencement  of  his 
college.  After  the  story  was  over,  the  attor- 
ney-general looked  across  the  table  to  the 
governor  without  saying  anything. 

"  No,"  said  the  governor  to  him,  "I  am  not 
going  to  open  my  plans.  The  responsibility 


SYBIL   KSOX.  219 

"of  this  thing  will  be  TOOTS.  I  shall  probably 
never  finish  the  note  to  yon  which  I  began  this 
morning.  I  had  got  so  far  as  to  say  that  some- 
thing most  be  done.  We  owe  it  to  the  State 
that  it  should  be  done,  and  we  owe  it  to  the 
country.  I  am  a  governor,  and  I  propose  to 
do  some  governing.  There  are  laws,  and  I  do 
not  believe  that  those  laws  are  to  be  ridden 
rough-shod  by  Wall  Street  or  any  emanation 
from  Wall  Street.  State  your  plans,  and  I 
will  say  whether  I  think  they  are  good." 

Thus  invoked,  the  attorney-general  went 
into  the  detail  of  the  matter,  somewhat  as  his 
chief  had  done  in  the  morning.  He  touched, 
however,  naturally  enongh,  more  upon  the 
difficulties  of  practice,  upon  the  proofs  to  be 
brought  for  this  theory  or  that  theory,  and 
especially  pointed  out,  with  a  very  sharp 
probe,  the  weakest  points  of  the  story  which 
Coudert  had  been  telling.  There  was  a  great 
deal  which  they  knew  for  all  practical  pur- 
poses, for  which  they  had  not  a  scrap  of  evi- 
dence which  could  be  put  in  in  court.  That 
tiie  arch-devil  of  this  transaction — call  him 
Satan,  Ahriman,  AchitopheL  or  what  you 


220  SYBIL    KNOX. 

would — was  in  league  with  all  the  enemies 
of  this  once  well-established  road,  was  clear 
enough.  That  he  had  suborned  its  officers 
right  and  left,  that  he  had  destroyed  its  repu- 
tation by  every  lie  which  he  could  print,  was 
clear  enough.  That  he  had  gone  so  far  as  to 
hire  one  of  its  own  men  to  set  fire  to  one  of  its 
buildings,  all  three  of  them  were  sure.  But 
these  were  a  set  of  terrible  charges,  which 
must  be  substantiated  in  the  face  of  the  first 
counsel  in  the  country,  and  where  there  was 
untold  wealth  in  the  hands  of  the  person  whose 
purposes  were  to  be  unmasked.  How  this 
should  be  done  was  not  so  easy  a  matter. 

It  was  at  this  point,  undoubtedly,  that  John 
Coudert's  visit  was  of  the  first  value  to  the 
governor  and  to  his  able  chief-of-staff  in  the 
line  of  law.  There  are  many  things  which  a 
person,  nominally  an  outsider,  can  do,  which 
cannot  be  thrown  upon  executive  officers. 
Coudert  intimated  that  he  would  see  to  the 
voice  of  the  press.  He  gave  them  the  evidence 
that  he  commanded  the  sympathy  of  the  large 
proprietors  of  the  C.  &  O.  And  they  knew 
perfectly  well  that  there  were  railroad  mag- 


SYBIL.  KSTOX. 


uaies  of  the  first  importance  in  the  country 
who  would  like  nothing  better,  were  it  merely 
in  the  cause  of  honor  and  truth,  than  that 
Ahriman  should  be  flung  from  his  throne  and 
should  plunge  for  nine  centuries  through  the 
abysses  of  darkness.  Exactly  how  the  various 
forces  were  to  be  divided  in  the  attack  which 
was  to  be  made — this  was  more  difficult;  to  say. 
It  was  easy  to  see  that  there  were  forces,  and 
Goudert  could  not  have  asked  that  those  forces 
ahnnld  have  a  better  eommander-in-chief  than 
"  jolly  3Fed  Xeadham,"  who  was  presiding  so 
gracefully  at  his  own  hospitable  table. 

They  talked  eagerly  for  an  hour  and  a  half, 
when  the  governor  withdrew.  He  had  an  ap- 
pointment at  three,  he  saioL  with  the  school 
board :  and  they  could  see  from  the  window 
that  his  horses  were  waiting:  at  the  door. 
-  But  you  are  not  to  go,  Mr.  Conderr.  Mrs. 
H eedham  wiU  keep  you  as  long  as  she  can,  and 
perhaps  yon  wffl  let  her  take  you  to  drive  this 
afternoon.  As  for  Scarlett;  here,  he  is  a  lazy 
dog :  he  never  has  anything  to  do.  And  he 
must  decide  whether  to  gp  with  yon  and  Mrs. 
Xeedham,  or  whether  he  wffl  sit  drinking  wifli 


222  SYBIL    KNOX. 

the  boys  at  the  bar  of  the  Tecumseh."  And 
with  this  final  fling  at  his  old  enemy,  he  bade 
them  good-bye. 

What  really  happened  was,  that  Coudert  and 
Scarlett  sat  smoking  together  for  an  hour  on  a 
shady  veranda,  and  went  backward  and  for- 
ward over  the  case  in  its  intricacies  and  possi- 
bilities. Coudert  ventured  to  express  his 
sense  of  the  charm  which  Needham  had  for 
him  in  all  his  bearing,  and  Scarlett  most 
cordially  seconded  every  word  he  said. 

"I  have  summered  him  and  wintered  him," 
he  said.  "He  is  as  pure  as  a  woman  and  as 
true  as  the  gospel.  And  at  the  same  time  he 
has  this  happy-go-lucky  way  with  him,  which, 
as  you  know,  makes  everybody  think  that  he 
is  his  special  friend.  The  fellow  deserves  his 
popularity,  if  any  man  ever  deserved  it.  And 
if  anybody  can  pull  you  and  me  through  in 
this  fight,  Mr.  Coudert,  it  will  be  Ned  Need- 
ham." 


w 


carcass  of  the  Cattarangns  and  Ope- 
IMHBB  Bailrmd.  or  proposing  to,  while  the 

—  ;.::_-. I  :_>•--.-:--  I:  '.-.:._•.:_".  .  :.<:'.-.:.;:  :"_•: 
lambs  who  held  its  stock  were  starring.  The 
smile  is  rery  badly  mixed,  but  so  were  all  the 
xf-:.::-5  :::_:-  ::i: . ::  •.:.:.•-::.•-::::::  i 

Rtartffd  in  the  TCTT  beginning^  created  by 
men  who  worked  in  the  public  interest,  with 
the  same  motiTe  with  which  nuthosedajs  men 
created  savings  banks  or  other  philanthropic 
institutions,  the  C.  &  O.  had  gone  throng^ 
man yups  and  many  downs.  Bat  in  the  bands 
of  a  brilliant,  and  wise  director,  one  George 
Orcatt.  the  road  had  long  ago  assumed  the 
nrnnina  ml  ing  position  which  its  founders  had 
foreseen.  In  afl  that  immense  region,  half  the 
country  was,  almost  of  necessity,  tributary  to 
iJL  And,  as  has  been  intimated,  so  large  and 
w  its  •«KPBPK!Mt  as  to  make 


224  SYBIL   KNOX. 

friends  where  it  might  have  expected  enemies, 
or  at  least  rivals.  George  Orcutt  had  long 
since  left  this  world.  But  the  traditions  he  had 
established  were  maintained,  and  the  present 
management,  though  it  could  claim  nothing  of 
his  genius,  or,  indeed,  of  his  spirit,  and  though, 
in  the  modern  notion,  it  was  certainly  "slow- 
coach" and  behind  the  times,  was  still  above 
and  beyond  all  suspicion  of  dishonor  or  of 
personal  motive. 

Still,  for  this  year,  with  a  facility  more  fatal 
than  that  of  years  before,  its  stock  fell  and  fell 
and  fell  in  the  market.  No  bull  spasms  af- 
fected the  hardly  conscious  faintness  of  this 
dying  road.  How  could  it  be  otherwise,  in- 
deed ?  Dividend  after  dividend  had  been 
passed.  Reports  were  less  and  less  frequent, 
and  then  it  was  only  too  clear  that  business 
was  declining.  The  most  rigid  economy  of 
administration,  parsimony,  even,  would  not 
create  a  credit  balance.  It  was  clear  enough 
that  the  treasurer  and  the  directors  were 
carrying  on  its  movement  from  their  own  poc- 
kets, in  a  sort  of  pride  which,  for  the  moment, 
compelled  them  to  keep  up  a  losing  game. 


SYBIL   KXOX.  326 

Mrs.  Knox's  business  agent,  a  kinsman  in 
whom  her  husband  had  confidence,  had  noti- 
fied her,  while  she  was  in  Europe,  of  the  dan- 
ger which  threatened  her.  She  must  lose 
severely,  even  if  he  sold  out  all  her  interests, 
but  his  advice  was  eager  that  he  might  be  per- 
mitted to  selL  He  was  of  the  average  type  of 
what  are  called  4i  men  of  business,*"  and  they 
are  always  eager  to  leave  a  ship  which  shows 
any  signs  of  damage.  But  Mrs.  Knox  had  been 
unwilling  to  give  the  permission.  Her  father 
was  one  of  the  men.  in  advance  of  his  time, 
who  had  been  called  crazy  for  pressing  for- 
ward the  works  of  public  improvement  which 
make  the  nation  what  it  is.  The  nation  had 
forgotten  him.  Bnt  she  had  not  forgotten 
him.  She  remembered  his  pride  in  the  tri- 
umphant success  of  this  particular  line.  And 
she  almost  felt  as  if  her  agent  had  asked  her 
to  change  her  name  because  it  would  not 
rhyme  with  Silver,  or  to  buy  a  new  carriage 
because  Mr.  Baal  had  one  of  a  different  kind 
from  that  she  fancied. 

The  agent  had  no  money  to  remit  to  her. 
All  her  money,  he  said,  was  needed  for  taxes 


226  SYBIL    KNOX. 

and  repairs  on  real  estate,  and  "betterments" 
on  her  city  property.  If  the  C.  &  O.  paid 
nothing,  he  had  nothing  to  pay  her.  She  had 
accordingly  instructed  him  to  borrow  some 
money  by  pledging  some  of  the  stock.  Actu- 
ally, by  this  borrowed  money  had  she  wound 
up  her  affairs  in  Europe  and  come  over  on. 
And  she  knew  perfectly  well  that  her  income 
for  two  years  had  been  far  less  than  nothing. 

She  was  not  the  only  "lamb  "  thus  led  to  the 
slaughter.  The  stock  had  been  one  of  those 
stocks  "handy  for  women,  you  know,"  in 
which  trustees  and  guardians,  and  the  steady 
men  of  that  sort,  tire  particularly  glad  to  salt 
down  the  provisions  left  for  people  who,,  as 
is  supposed,  cannot  take  care  of  themselves. 
And  thus,  when  Mr.  Baal  had  selected  this 
particular  fold  for  his  attacks,  the  lambs  which 
were  folded  in  it  were  more  tender  and  more 
helpless  than  is  even  the  average  lamb. 

As  September  came  in  Mrs.  Knox's  cousin 
wrote  her  a  more  severe  letter  than  ever.  It 
was  simply  madness,  he  said,  to  hold  on.  He 
had  talked  with  the  shrewdest  and  the  best 
men  in  the  street,  and  he  named  them  to  her. 


STBLL  K3TOX.  227 

They  were  aghast  to  think  that  any  man  in  his 
senses,  holding  what  was  virtually  a  trust  fond, 
had  held  on  so  long  to  what  was  really  a  dis- 
honored stock.  He  wrote  with  the  hardness 
and  bitterness  of  a  prophet  who  had  given 
warning  and  who  had  been  nnheard.  He  wrote 
with  the  harder  hardness  of  a  man  of  business. 
who  has  said  the  right  thing  and  has  had  a 
fool  to  deal  with.  Here  was  a  property  once 
worth  more  than  a  hundred  and  fifty  thousand 
dollars,  which  now  could  not  be  sold  for  a 
third  part  of  that  sumT  and  for  a  mere  senti- 
ment, she  was  resolved,  he  said,  that  it  should 
be  sold  for  nothing.  A  bankrupt  railroad — it 
was  that  and  nothing  more. 

The  letter  ended  by  his  saying  stiffly,  that 
he  would  have  nothing  more  to  do  with  the 
management  of  he*  affairs  if  she  refused  the 
permission  to  sell.  She  must  select  some 
other  agent.  His  account  was  submitted  as 
always ;  the  keys  of  her  safes  would  be  placed 
in  any  hands  she  would  suggest. 

In  short,  the  letter  was  as  hard  and  stiff  a 
letter  as  Convers  Knox  knew  how  to  write. 
And  any  person  who  remembers  him  wfll 


228  SYBIL    KNOX. 

know  that  that  was  sufficiently  stiff  and 
hard. 

Mrs.  Knox  had  before  her,  when  she  received 
it,  her  August  bills,  from  grocer,  butcher, 
poulterer,  and  all  the  rest.  She  had  drawn 
the  checks  on  the  local  bank  for  the  month's 
wages  of  the  gardeners,  the  coachman,  and  her 
other  servants.  She  knew  how  low  that  bank 
account  was  drawn.  She  knew  that  the  next 
letter  she  wrote  must  be  to  this  very  Convers 
Knox,  to  bid  him  sell  some  of  her  "govern- 
ments" to  provide  fifteen  hundred  dollars  for 
the  service  of  the  rest  of  the  year.  And  here 
was  his  statement  that,  unless  she  would  do 
thus  and  so,  he  would  throw  up  the  charge  of 
her  affairs. 

And  why  should  she  not  do  what  he  Avanted? 

She  knew  just  how  far  this  matter  of  sen- 
timent went.  Originally,  when  it  was  a 
question  of  pluck  for  a  few  months  only,  she 
had  not  hesitated  ;  she  would  not  sacrifice  the 
property  for  which  her  dear  father  had  given 
his  life.  But  she  would  never  have  carried  this 
feeling  so  far  as  to  have  ruined  herself  pecuni- 
arily. She  knew,  as  well  as  Convers  Knox  knew, 


SYBIL  KXOX.  •-*-'- 

that  that  was  absurd.  And.  just  as  she  would 
hare  sold  the  house  in  which  her  father  was 
born,  if  she  most  sell  it,  why,  so  would  she  sell 
Hifiw  securities,  if  she  must  sell  them.  But.  as 
she  sat  here  this  morning,  she  knew  that  she 
now  had  another  reason  for  holding  on  to 
property  which  seemed  so  worthless.  Yet  it 
was  a  reason  of  which  she  could  not  speak — 
not  to  this  business-adviser,  certainly.  Xo.  she 
had  no  confidential  friend  to  whom  she  could 
apeak  of  it.  Alas !  had  she,  then,  no  friends  \ 
Was  this  the  result  of  living  as  well  as  she 
knew  bow  for  near  thirty  years,  that  at  the 
end  of  those  years  she  had  no  one  with  whom 
she  could  consult  on  anything?  And  then 
came  the  certain  answer  that  if  John  Coudert 
were  here  she  should  consult  him,  and  should 
be  governed  absolutely  by  his  wish.  There 
came  the  certainty,  and  it  was  no  new  revela- 
tion, that  she  trusted  him  as  she  trusted  no 
other  man,  and  certainly  no  woman,  in  the 
world.  And  here  she  had  his  statement  on 
this  very  point.  He  begged  her  not  to  do 
precisely  what  Convers  Knox  bade  her  do. 
Still  she  could  not  say  to  any  one,  that  she 


230  SYBIL    KNOX. 

was  flying  in  the  face  of  all  her  other  advisers 
because  he  had  urged  her  to  do  so.  Foolishly 
or  not,  she  felt  that  this  was  her  secret,  and  it 
was  a  secret  that  she  could  not  confide.  None 
the  less  did  she  write  to  the  friend  of  her  voy- 
age, Judge  Kendrick,  who  was  in  New  York. 
She  asked  him  to  see  her  cousin,  Convers 
Knox,  and  gave  him  full  powers  to  take  the 
management  of  her  property.  She  did  say  to 
him,  "Mr.  Knox  wishes  me  to  sell  out  my 
Western  securities,  but  I  am  strongly  urged 
by  Mr.  Coudert  to  hold  them.  I  have  written 
to  him  with  regard  to  it,  and  have  no  answer." 
For  that  letter  which  she  had  sent  to  Memphis 
had,  of  course,  brought  no  reply  from  him. 


CHAPTER  XX. 

THUS  liar  Coudert  had  made  his  inquiries 
*a  to  the  fortunes  of  the  C.  &  O.  as  quietly 
as  possible;  but  it  was  now  decided  that  he 
had  best  consult  with  the  officers  of  the  road, 
and  see  if  their  half  of  evidence  and  conjec- 
ture would  make  a  whole  when  joined  to  his 
half.  It  was  not  a  long  journey  to  CoramriUe. 
the  company's  headquarters,  and  Coudert, 
after  a  little  inquiry,  easily  found  his  way  to 
the  narrow  stairway  leading  up  to  the  superin- 
tendent's office.  There  were  several  men  com- 
ing in  from  the  street  as  he  came  from  the 
station.  Following  Rollo's  rule,  he  also  fol- 
lowed the  crowd,  and  they  went  together  up 
the  corridor,  till  the  man  ahead  opened  the 
door  marked  "  Superintendent,"  and  they  all 
went  in  together. 

Coudert  was  a  little  surprised  to  find  himself 
ushered  within  the  rail  and  into  the  private 
office,  as  if  he  were  one  of  this  party.  The 


232  SYBIL    KNOX. 

room  was  not  large  and  he  could  not  well 
separate  himself  from  them.  They  were  all 
serious-looking  men  of  middle  age,  and  all 
dressed  in  black  frock  coats,  which  had  a  look 
as  of  Sunday  best,  except  that  the  leader,  a 
stout  man,  with  a  heavy  black  mustache, 
wore  a  flashy  suit  of  checked  dittoes  and  a  still 
more  flashy  diamond. 

The  superintendent,  Mr.  Martinet,  was  not 
seated.  He  came  forward,  passed  the  flashy 
leader,  and  shook  hands  with  several  of  the 
sober  men.  Before  he  was  done,  the  leader, 
now  behind  him,  spoke  in  a  voice  much  too 
large  for  the  room  : 

"We  come  here  as  representatives  of  the 
Confederation  of  Toil  to  demand  the  adjust- 
ment of  our  grievances." 

The  superintendent  faced  round. 

"I  do  not  know  you,  sir;  but  I  should  be 
sorry  to  think  that  any  of  my  friends  on  the  road 
need  come  to  me  in  any  other  quality  than  that 
of  the  employes  of  the  C.  &  O.  These  gentle- 
men are  working  for  us  ;  I  suppose  they  have 
come  in  that  capacity.  Are  you  an  employe 
of  the  road,  sir?" 


STBtt,   KXOJL  - '•-•- 

an  laid  his  hand  on  the  bark  of 
a  chair. 

"I  am  Mr.  J.  Walker/*  he  replied,  "past 
grand  chancellor  and  chairman  of  the  Execu- 
tive Committee  of  the  Grand  Lodge  of  the 
Confederation  of  Toil  These,7"  and  he  wared 
his  hand,  "are  the  Grievance  Committee  of 
District  Assembly  Xo.  347.  C.  of  T.  7am  not 
in  TOUT  employ,  sir.*" 

**Aic  you  working  for  any  one.  Mr- 
Walker!7"  said  Martinet.  "  I  remember  you 
now,  bat  yon  hare  shared  off  your  beard  since 
we  «*i«MiiMi  1  yon.  Are  yon  still  inspecting 
cars?  Yon  were  a  good  hand  at  that  when 
yon  took  care  of  yourself."" 

Coudert  started ;  this  was  Walker,  the  faith- 
less inspector,  whose  neglect  had  caused  those 
wrecks  on  the  C.  &  O. 

Walker  s  clutch  on  the  chair-back  tightened. 

"I  am  round-house  foreman  on  the  Great 
Midland,"*  said  he,  with  an  attempt  at  bravado. 
The  Great  Midland  was  the  northern  connec- 
tion of  the  C.  &  O.,  and  the  more  voracious 
of  the  two  roads  controlled  by  that 


234  SYBIL    KNOX. 

"I  am  glad  to  hear  that  you  are  doing  well, 
Walker,"  said  the  superintendent ;  "  you  have 
plenty  of  ability  if  you  only  try  to  exert  it. 
But,  at  present,  I  can  hardly  talk  to  you. 
Some  of  my  friends  here  on  the  road  want  me 
to  arrange  something  for  them,  and  it  seems 
to  me  that  you  are  out  of  place."  Then  he 
faced  round,  "Boys,  what  can  I  do  for  you  ?" 
said  he  to  the  others. 

Walker  turned  white  with  rage  ;  he  sprang 
forward  and  clutched  the  superintendent's 
shoulders.  "I  represent  the  Grand  Lodge  of 
the  Confederation.  Do  you  refuse  to  recognize 
the  Confederation  ? "  • 

Martinet  flung  his  arm  off.  "I  refuse  to 
recognize  you!" 

"  I  told  youjso  ! "  shouted  Walker ;  "  I  told 
you  he  would  refuse  to  recognize  the  Confedera- 
tion. We  can  do  ^nothing  with  him,  and  the 
sooner  we  go  the  better.  Come  out  of  this, 
we  can  do  nothing  with  a  man  who  refuses  to 
recognize  the  Confederation.  Come  ! " 

He  passed  out  of  the  door.  One  of  the  men 
followed  him,  then  another.  One  of  the  two 
left  looked  at  him  and  then  at  Martinet.  "  If 


SYBIL   KXOX.  235 

we  don't  go  he  will  have  us  expelled  and  boy- 
cotted," he  whispered ;  and  they  passed  out. 

Coudert  was  thus  left  with  the  superintend- 
ent, who  had  already  crossed  the  room  to  his 
desk  and  rung  a  bell. 

"  Excuse  me,  Mr.  Martinet,  for  what  seems 
an  intrusion,  but  I  am  concerned  in  this,  too. 
My  name  is  Coudert.  Mr.  Bliven  represents 
my  interest  on  the  board.** 

Martinet's  look  of  distrust  changed,  and, 
after  giving  a  hurried  order  to  the  porter  who 
had  answered  the  bell,  he  took  Coudert* s 
hand. 

" 1  am  very  glad  to  meet  yon,  Mr.  Coudert, 
but  I  fear  you  must  excuse  me  now.  As  you 
know,  the  president  is  sick  and  the  manager 
abroad,  so  that  I  am  alone,  and  I  fear  I  have  a 
little  too  much  on  my  hands." 

At  this  moment  a  young  man  came  in  whom 
Mr.  Martinet  introduced  as  his  chief  operator. 

"John,"  said  he,  "have  you  spotted  all 
your  C.  of  T.  men  yet  I  I  want  that  informa- 
tion sooner  than  I  had  expected." 

ki  Only  in  the  city,"  was  the  reply.  ••  I  am 
not  sure  about  all  the  others." 


236  SYBIL   KNOX. 

"That  may  do,"  said  Martinet.  "Let  me 
see.  It  is  now  three-thirty.  How  many  of 
them  have  you? " 

"  Four  that  I  am  sure  of,  two  that  I  suspect. 
The  other  four  operators  here  are  all  right." 

"Very  well;  send  three  of  them  north  on 
the  four  o'clock,  and  three  south  on  the  four- 
ten.  Don't  dismiss  them,  you  understand  ; 
just  send  them  to  isolated  offices  where  they 
can't  do  any  harm.  I  will  give  you  Miller  and 
Smith  here  ;  they  are  operators,  you  know, 
and  you  must  pick  up  some  work.  And  if 
any  stranger — any  one,  you  know — comes  to- 
day with  a  message  tell  him  all  right,  and  send 
the  message  here.  Do  you  understand  ?  " 

The  chief  operator  had  been  taking  notes  as 
Martinet  spoke. 

"There  is  one  man  I  may  not  be  able  to 
catch  in  time,  but  they  can't  either,"  and  he 
turned  and  went  out  almost  on  the  run. 

Martinet  had  rung  again  by  this  time. 

"  That  is  only  a  temporary  relief,"  said  he  ; 
"it  will  postpone  the  strike  out  of  town,  I 
hope,  but  Walker  will  get  word  to  them  to- 
morrow." 


SYBIL   KXOX.  237 

"  Can't  you  arrest  him  ! "  said  Coudert. 

"I  wish  I  could,"  replied  Martinet;  "but 
how!" 

"Criminal  conspiracy,"  was  the  reply. 
"Wasn't  he  mixed  up  in  those  bad  wrecks 
some  time  ago  ? " 

"Yes ;  but  we  couldn't  prove  anything." 

"  Perhaps  we  can  now ;  and  at  any  rate  it 
would  be  a  delay." 

At  this  moment  the  master  mechanic  came 
in. 

"  Mr.  Frame,"  said  Martinet,  "  none  of  your 
engineers  are  Confederate  men,  are  they  \ " 

"No,  sir ;  they  are  Chevaliers,  all  of  them, 
but  most  of  the  firemen  are  Confederates." 

"  I  am  afraid,  Frame,  that  the  Confederates 
will  go  out  to-night,  so  you  must  skirmish 
round  and  get  men  to  fire,  and.  Frame,  tell 
your  men  to  keep  quiet  about  the  strike  out 
on  the  road.  I  hope  we  can  confine  it  to  the 
town  here." 

As  Frame  turned  to  go  Coudert  said  : 

••  Mr.  Frame,  do  you  remember  Inspector 
Walker*" 

"Yes,  sir ;  he  ought  to  be  in  jail  now.    He 


238  SYBIL    KNOX. 

killed  more  men  by  his  neglect  than  most 
hangmen  have  by  their  trade.  Neglect,  did  I 
call  it  ?  It  was  the  sort  of  neglect  that  would 
sober  most  men,  but,  if  you'll  believe  it,  he 
was  sober  when  he  inspected  that  train  and 
drunk  afterward." 

"Can  you  prove  that  in  a  court  of  law?" 
asked  Martinet  eagerly  :  "or  could  you  swear 
to  it  before  a  magistrate  ? " 

"No,  but  two  of  my  men  can,"  was  the 
reply. 

So  Mr.  Frame  was  hurried  off  for  his  wit- 
nesses and  to  get  a  warrant  sworn  out  against 
Walker,  and  Coudert  left  the  office  with  a  real 
hope  in  his  heart. 

As  Coudert  walked  toward  his  hotel  he 
passed  the  office  of  the  Parachute,  the  evening 
paper  of  Coramville.  There  was  quite  a  little 
crowd  of  newsboys  gathered  for  the  next  edi- 
tion, and  as  Coudert  looked  across  the  street 
at  them  he  saw  Walker,  the  Confederate 
"leader,"  coming  out  of  the  office.  He 
nodded  to  Coudert  and  crossed  the  street  to  him. 

"I  don't  remember  your  name,"  said  he; 
"  have  you  been  with  the  road  long  ? " 


Condert  told  him  Ms  name,  and  said  lie  had 
been  interested  in  the  rood  nince  he  ins  a  boj. 
He  added  that  he  had  nerer  been  ndxed  up  in 
any  labor  troubles  before,  which  was  probably 
the  reason  he  had  never  met  Walker. 

'•  WeUL"  was  the  reply,  -I  am  sorry,  rery 
sorry,  I  have  ewer  had  anything  to  do  with 
labor  tradUes.  People  think  we  leaders  make 
a  good  thing  out  of  it.  but  it's  harder  work 
than  I  care  I  or.  Look  at  to-day  ;  why,  I  hare 


and  lam  haidly  done  yet." 

a-OiTe  you  sent   the  order  oat! 
CoadterL.  at  a  Tentore. 

"Come  in  and  hare  a  drink.""  said  Walker, 
"and  m  tefl  you.'"' 

Under  orfraary  ehmnnlnnees  Gbndert  wooM 
hare  tihonght  twice  before  accepting  such  an 
imitation,  bat  now  he  eageriy  followed  the 
man  into  the  gaudy  bar-room,  and  sat  down 
with  him  at  a  small  table  in  one  corner.  As 
they  passed  in  he  hemd  apoficeman  say  to  the 


'-There  goes  Walker,  the  labor  man.9 
After  they  were  seated  Walker  began 


240  SYBIL    KNOX. 

Coudert  fancied  he  had  already  been  drinking, 
and  deeply.  "I  was  sitting  up  in  a  car  all  last 
night,  couldn't  get  a  sleeping-car  pass — blessed 
if  I  won't  raise  a  strike  among  the  porters — 
then  this  morning  I  had  to  run  round  to  get  a 
meeting  of  your  Grievance  Committee  ;  hardly 
knew  the  men,  and  they  had  forgotten  most  of 
their  grievances.  I  had  to  brace  you  all  up 
and  get  you  to  go  to  the  boss's,  and  then  he 
would  have  soft-soaped  you  all  if  I  hadn't 
helped  you  out  again.  Since  then  I  have  been 
writing  telegrams  to  all  your  Assemblies,  and 
getting  them  rushed,  and — 

"  How  did  you  send  the  messages  ?  " 

"  Company  wire,  of  course.  We  have  all 
the  operators.  I  was  up  in  the  office  by  four- 
fifteen.  Sent  them  off  in  cipher — seven  o'clock 
to-night,  mind.  Then  I  have  had  to  create 
public  sentiment.  Was  up  at  the  Parachute 
about  that,  which  you  fellows  have  neglected, 
and  all  to  oblige  a  friend." 

"What  friend?"  asked  Coudert,  looking  at 
the  light  through  his  glass  with  a  show  of  in- 
difference. 

"What  friend?    The  biggest  man  in  this 


SYBIL   KXOX.  241 

State,  I  can  tell  you.  He  has  got  me  into  more 
trouble  than  whiskey  has,"  and  he  held  np  Ms 
glass,  "  bnt  he  always  gets  me  out  again.  He 
always  stands  by  Ms  friends.  He  got  me  my 
job  on  the  Great  Midland  after  he  had  lost  me 
my  job  on  the " 

He  stopped  and  peered  at  Condert  suspi- 
ciously, as  if  fearing  he  had  gone  too  far. 

At  this  moment  a  boy  burst  in  from  the 
street. 

"Say,  Mr.  Walker,"  he  wMspered,  in  a 
hoarse  voice,  "them  messages  didn't  get  sent. 
The  boss  has  them  all !  And  all  our  fellows 
were  sent  off  to  different  places  out  of  town 
before  you  was  in,  and  nobody  knows,  and  I 
don't  darest  to  strike  all  alone."  And  the 
little  fellow  was  gone  again. 

Walker  started  up,  completely  sobered- 

"  Where's  the  Western  Union  Office  I'*  he 
cried,  as  he  threw  a  silver  piece  on  the  bar  and 
strode  out  "  Come  this  way,  Condert ;  we 
can  reach  them  by  Western  Union.  I  have 
money  enough,  I  think.*' 

He  threw  open  the  door  only  to  meet  a  police 


242  SYBIL   KNOX. 

"I  arrest  you,  Walker.  I  have  a  warrant 
here,  so  you  had  better  come  quietly.  It's  for 
your  old  trouble,  that  wreck,  you  know — crim- 
inal conspiracy." 

How  his  friends  in  the  city  of  Franklin 
might  like  this  sudden  stroke,  to  which  the 
rather  slow  Mr.  Martinet  had  been  roused  by 
the  exigencies  of  the  strike,  John  Coudert  did 
not  know.  But  he  telegraphed  at  length  to 
Scarlett,  the  attorney-general,  and  more  briefly 
to  "  jolly  Ned  Needham,"  what  had  been  done, 
and  he  spent  half  the  night  in  writing  a  long 
letter  to  Scarlett  to  tell  him  what  the  position 
was.  In  the  morning  he  was  able  to  see  the  dif- 
ferent witnesses  whom  it  would  be  necessary  to 
call ;  and,  with  the  experience  of  many  years, 
he  sifted  sadly  out  the  grains  of  fact  which 
could  be  stuck  to  through  all  cross-examina- 
tion, from  the  wishes,  fears,  guesses,  and  fan- 
cies of  these  men.  He  then  determined  to  try 
another  interview  with  Berlitz,  on  whose  testi- 
mony, after  all,  so  much  would  depend  if  it 
proved  advisable  to  ride  two  horses,  and  to  re- 
new the  investigation  possibly  with  another 


STBLL  KXOX.  243 

criminal  trial  for  that  matter  of  the  burning  of 
the  woodsheds.  He  crossed,  therefore,  to  Dor- 
casville  by  a  meandering  ronte,  which  took  in 
half  a  dozen  broken-winded  railroads,  which 
were  going  through  processes  not  unlike  the 
decline  of  the  Cattaraugus  &  Opelousas.  In 
the  time  which  it  took  him  to  cross  the  country 
thus,  he  could  have  crossed  to  the  Mississippi 
Yalley  in  one  of  the  flying  trains.  But  he  had 
an  object-lesson  of  what  it  is  to  hare  a  road 
run  by  a  "  receiver ?*  on  its  receipts,  and  a  road 
in  which  the  great  mercantile  public  takes  no 
concern. 

Arrived  at  the  prison,  Coudert  saw  his  ami- 
able friend  who  fancied  himself  curing  these 
people  of  the  disease  called  crime,  and  sub- 
jected himself,  first  of  all,  to  a  long,  dreamy 
interview  with  him.  He  was  at  the  moment 
reading,  in  a  French  translation,  one  of  Bec- 
caria's  treatises  on  crime,  but,  after  a  little,  he 
managed  to  recollect  who  Coudert  was,  and 
after  a  little  more  he  managed  to  go  back  to  his 
diary  of  the  first  observations  he  had  made  on 
the  patient  Berlitz,  who  was  sent  to  him  for  two 
years  as  afflicted  with  the  disease  incendiarism. 


244  SYBIL   KNOX. 

Coudert  did  his  best  to  quicken  him  on 
his  remembering  side,  and  finally  asked  him 
whether  Berlitz  had  in  his  possession  no  letters 
or  papers,  when  his  clothing  was  taken  from 
him  and  he  was  made  to  put  on  the  prison  wear. 
The  physician  of  crime  expressed  surprise  at 
such  a  question,  for  he  said  these  papers  were 
all  carefully  locked  up  for  the  use  of  the  patient 
when  he  should  recover.  For  his  part,  he 
should  consider  it  a  violation  of  trust  to  ex- 
amine any  of  them.  But  he  remembered  very 
well  that  there  were  many  letters,  and  they 
were  all  under  the  county  seal  in  the  county 
safe  ;  this  with  a  certain  threatening  air  to 
Coudert,  as  if  to  imply  that  Coudert  himself 
had  the  disease  of  dynamitism,  and  meant  to 
explode  this  safe  in  order  to  obtain  these 
papers.  This  was  all  that  at  this  time  John 
Coudert  got  from  this  ideologist.  But  the 
ideologist  consented  that  he  should  converse 
with  Berlitz,  and  Berlitz  was  ordered  out  from 
the  harness-room,  where  he  was  at  work,  into 
a  room  sacred  to  such  interviews. 

He  was  a  different  man  from  the  oppressed, 
downcast  creature  whom  Coudert  had  seen 


SYBIL    KXOX.  245 

before.  If  the  physician  of  crime  had  broaght 
this  about  he  was  entitled  to  great  credit.  Bat 
it  soon  proved  that  it  had  been  brought  about 
much  more  by  a  letter  from  his  wife.  This 
letter  was  the  letter,  which  perhaps  the  reader 
recollects,  which  contained  a  one-dollar  bill, 
and  it  had  been  working  its  way  through  the 
processes  of  the  dead-letter  office.  The  admir- 
able women  who  conduct  the  search-depart- 
ment there  had  "gone  for"  Berlitz — if  one 
may  use  a  nice  bit  of  slang — as  a  "darning- 
needle"  goes  for  a  mosquito.  They  had  first 
sent  to  Texas,  to  the  Salm  Colony,  where  there 
are  Berlitzes  by  the  hundred.  But  the  Texan 
postmaster,  after  trying  any  number  of  Ger- 
hards.  had  sent  the  letter,  with  its  dollar-bill, 
back  to  them.  He  had  given  them  an  endorse- 
ment, however,  to  try  something  else,  and 
something  else  had  been  tried.  A  Catholic 
bishop  had  been  drawn  into  the  inquiry,  but, 
after  furnishing  three  or  four  Gerhards.  he  had 
given  it  up  in  despair.  It  was  then  that  some- 
body engaged  in  the  search,  reading  some  old 
number  of  a  county  newspaper,  had  seen  that 
Gerhard  Berlitz  had  been  arrested  on  this 


246  SYBIL    KXOX. 

charge,  and  the  letter  had  been  sent  to  Dorcas- 
ville,  and  there  triumphantly  had  remained. 
So  far  as  known,  nobody  had  thanked  these 
excellent  people  in  the  dead-letter  office  for 
this  perseverance,  beyond  the  perseverance  of 
the  saints.  But,  all  the  same,  Berlitz  had  the 
letter  of  his  wife,  he  had  the  dollar-bill,  and 
all  this  within  six  or  eight  weeks  of  the  time 
when  the  letter  was  written.  It  seemed  to  give 
him  a  confidence  which  nothing  that  Coudert 
had  said  of  his  wife  had  given  him.  He  had 
been  glad  to  see  the  picture,  but  now  he  had 
seen  her  own  handwriting.  And,  with  the  joy 
of  a  young  lover  who  had  received  his  first 
letter  from  his  sweetheart,  he  handed  to  John 
Coudert  the  letter  itself. 

It  was  in  badly-written  German  handschrift. 
But  it  was  not  the  first  time  that  John  Coudert 
had  read  bad  German.  He  wanted  all  Berlitz' s 
confidence,  and  he  therefore  read  the  letter 
aloud  to  him  from  end  to  end.  As  he  came  to 
the  end  he  fairly  started  as  he  read  the  words, 
"Whenever  you  receive  this  you  must  write 
to  me  at  once.  Address  me  to  the  care  of  Mrs. 
Sybil  Knox,  Atherton,  Vermont." 


SYBIL   KXOX.  247 

Clear  was  it  then  that  on  the  critical  day, 
when  this  letter  was  written,  Mrs.  Knox  still 
retained  her  name.  And,  by  putting  this  and 
that  together,  Condert  made  himself  sure  that 
the  statement  of  her  marriage,  made  to  him  at 
Memphis,  was  at  least  what  the  reporters  call 
"premature." 


CHAPTER  XXI. 

TWO  meetings  of  the  Atlierton  Chapter  of 
the  Order  of  "Send  Me"  had  been  held 
before  Mrs.  Knox  met  with  her  sister  com- 
panions of  that  Order.  She  had  cordially 
accepted  their  invitation.  But  she  was  not 
yet  used  to  their  promptness  of  obedience, 
which  was,  indeed,  easier  to  such  young  people 
as  most  of  them  were.  The  third  meeting, 
however,  found  her  present,  cordially  deter- 
mined to  do  her  best,  but  curious,  after  all  the 
explanations  of  her  friends,  to  know  what  was 
expected  of  her. 

"Her  initiation  was  very  simple,  as  she  had 
expected.  It  was  the  custom  of  the  Chapter 
to  receive  one  new  member  with  every  second 
month.  And  at  this  meeting  she  found  that  a 
delicate  young  woman,  whom  she  had  never 
seen  in  their  village  sociabilities,  was  to  be 
initiated  with  her. 

The  moment  when  the  little  mantel-clock 


SYBIL    KJTOX.  249 

struck  three  Mrs.  Carrigan  clapped  her  hands 
and  said  "Order ! ?T  and  the  chattering  assem- 
bly was  hushed.  "Hatty,  dear,  will  you 
play?"  said  the  lady  president.  And  Hatty, 
who  was  next  the  piano,  played  Sullivan's 
spirited  music,  and  the  Society,  all  standing, 
sang  one  Terse  of  "Onward,  Christian  sol- 
ikxB."  Then  they  sat,  and  all  those  who 
were  used  to  the  meeting  bent  their  heads  for 
prayer.  Without  any  apparent  lead,  they  all 
united  in  these  words : 

"Father  of  perfect  love,  we  trust  that  love 
entirely.  Help  us  to  help  each  other,  and  to 
do  something  for  Thy  Kingdom.  Father,  ws 
ask  it  in  His  Name.*' 

Mrs.  Carrigan  had  been  till  now  sitting  with 
her  knitting  by  her  at  the  open  window.  The 
meeting  was  now  begun,  however,  and  she 
crossed  to  her  davenport,  where  Mrs.  Knox 
had  already  seen  an  open  record-book  and  a 
tile  of  letters. 

' ;  I  will  read  Clara?  s  journal . ' ?  she  said.  And 
she  read  a  report,  severely  condensed,  of  the 
last  meeting.  There  were  notes  of  two  or  three 
charities  among  the  poorer  people  of  the  town, 


250  SYBIL    KNOX. 

of  the  success  and  difficulties  of  a  reading- 
room  which  had  been  established  in  the  factory 
village  at  Lyman's  Mills,  an  abstract  of  two 
letters  received,  one  from  Boston  and  one  from 
Tientsin,  and  the  names  of  the  committees 
appointed  to  answer  them.  A  note  on  Mrs. 
Ed  wards' s  difficulty,  or  her  son's,  showed  that 
he  was  not  only  out  of  jail,  but  that  the  prose- 
cution had  been  withdrawn. 

"  Is  the  record  approved  ?  It  is  approved," 
said  Mrs.  Carrigan.  She  then  turned  to  Mrs. 
Knox.  "I  believe  you  know  every  one,  unless 
it  is  Miss  Robideau,  who  is  a  newcomer  like 
yourself.  Miss  Robideau,  you  must  feel  at 
home  with  us  all,  and  learn  the  names  as  you 
work  with  us  and  talk  with  us.  Ladies,  listen 
while  I  read  the  charter  and  the  constitution 
to  the  new  members."  And  then  she  read  the 
charter. 

The  constitution  is  this  : 

"  We  join  the  Atherton  Circle  of  Send  Me. 
We  will  go  where  the  Master  sends.  Our  hope 
is  to  do  some  good — to  bring  in  his  Kingdom, 
and  to  grow  into  better  life.  We  will  try  to 
look  up  and  not  down,  to  look  forward  and 


SYBIL    KXOX.  251 

not  back,  to  look  out  and  not  in,  and  to  lend  a 
hand." 

The  newcomers  knew  what  was  expected  of 
them,  and  they  signed  the  constitution.  Mrs. 
Carrigan  pinned  a  Maltese  cross  with  a  ribbon 
on  the  dress  of  each,  and  the  ceremony  of  ad- 
mission was  thus  simply  finished. 

4iThe  Asney  Circle  open  their  public  library 
next  Friday  afternoon.  Who  can  go  to  repre- 
sent us  ? " 

Three  ladies  volunteered . 

"  Huldah,  dear,  about  Lyman's  Mills."  The 
shy,  slight,  pretty  young  girl  who  was  thus 
called  on  had  a  little  note-book  in  her  hand, 
to  which  she  referred  occasionally  for  dates  or 
figures.  She  blushed,  and  spoke  a  little  nerv- 
ously at  first,  but,  in  a  minute,  she  had  warmed 
up  to  her  subject,  and  gave  a  very  intelligent^ 
often  amusing,  account  of  the  ups  and  downs 
of  this  public  reading-room  and  library,  of 
which,  like  our  readers,  Mrs.  Knox  had  first 
heard  when  the  report  was  read.  The  reading- 
room  had  been  moved  downstairs  into  the  en- 
tertainment room.  It  seemed  that  there  was  a 
social  feeling,  even  among  boys  and  girls  who 


252  SYBIL    KNOX. 

were  reading  Harper1  s  Monthly,  or  looking  at 
the  Illustrated  News.  They  wanted  to  be 
among  their  race.  So  the  neat  little  reading- 
room  upstairs  had  been  abandoned,  and  large 
tables,  with*  the  picture-newspapers  and  maga- 
zines, were  arranged  upon  it  below  stairs.  The 
people  who  read,  read  among  others  who 
played  chess  and  checkers,  and  dominoes  and 
parlor-croquet,  and  other  games  which  Sybil 
Knox  had  never  heard  of. 

The  committee  wanted  an  appropriation  for 
U Illustration  and  Le  Monde  Illustre,  pub- 
lished in  Montreal.  And  the  report  closed 
with  the  eager  wish  that  they  could  interest 
the  Canadian  village  at  Lyman's  Mills,  as  they 
had  not  yet  done.  Huldah  Wadsworth  laid 
down  her  notes  and  made  the  others  scream 
with  laughter  as  she  described  her  failure  in 
talking  French  with  these  people.  "Actually, 
you  know,  they  do  not  understand  their  own 
language."  But  she  was  firm  in  the  faith  that 
somebody  could  interest  them,  and  keep  those 
nice  French  boys  from  sitting  in  the  post-office 
on  barrels  every  evening  throwing  bottle-corks 


5TBEL   KXOX. 

at  each  other.  "Only  I  am  not  that  some- 
body." 

In  a  most  unparliamentary  way,  the  Clnb 
fell  into  a  talk  on  this  whole  Lyman's  Mills 
business.  Different  girls  told  of  their  own  suc- 
cesses and  failures.  It  seemed  that  on  Monday 
one  or  two  went  down  and  spent  the  evening 
at  the  library,  with  brothers  or  fathers  or  other 
men-folk,  so  as  to  be  there  to  answer  ques- 
tions, to  teach  people  how  to  play  chess.  orT  in 
general,  to  grease  the  wheels  of  the  machine. 
There  was  no  end  of  stories,  often  very  funny. 
as  to  their  experiences  in  these  hospitalities. 
What  was  clear  enough  was  that  they  were 
determined  the  enterprise  should  go  through : 
and  that  they  had  found  out  that  it  would  not 
go  through,  unless  they  all  gave  their  personal 
help  in  the  guiding  and  working  of  the  ma- 
chinery. 

After  a  good  deal  of  this  detail,  which  some- 
times had  something  to  do  with  future  plans, 
and  move  often  had  not,  the  pale  Miss  Robi- 
deau,  who  was  one  of  the  two  new  members, 
crossed  to  Mrs.  Carrigan  and  said,  without 


254  SYBIL    KNOX. 

addressing  the  whole  company,  that  she  was 
interested  in  what  was  said  about  the  French 
boys.  "I  could  not  do  much  with  them,  I 
suppose.  But  I  could  with  their  sisters,  I 
think.  You  know  I  am  their  countrywoman, 
and — and — 

She  stopped  with  a  little  delicacy,  doubting 
how  she  might  best  say  that  her  French  was 
perhaps  better  than  Huldah's.  Mrs.  Carri- 
gan  did  not  hesitate  to  supply  the  words. 

"And,  of  course,"  she  said,  "they  will  be 
glad  to  talk  in  your  language,  if  they  can- 
not speak  in  Huldah's.  Hnldah,  dear,  come 
and  hear  what  Miss  Robideau  is  thinking 
of." 

"Let  me  hear,  also,"  said  Sybil  Knox,  a 
little  annoyed  with  herself  that  she  had  not 
had  the  courage  to  say  the  same  thing.  From 
the  moment  when  she  had  heard  that  easy 
French  was  in  demand  in  this  Green  Mountain 
town  where  fate  had  thrown  her,  she  had  felt 
that  she  was  not  wholly  an  exile  in  her  own 
home.  "  Miss  Robideau,  try  to  make  room 
for  me  when  you  go  over.  As  for  L' Illustra- 
tion, I  have  fifty  back  numbers  in  the  house, 


SYBIL    KXOX.  KB 

and  I  do  not  believe  they  will  care  much  for 
novelty." 

Miss  Robidean  was  one  of  the  dressmakers 
in  the  village.  She  had  lived  there  only  a 
year  or  two.  But  Mrs.  Carrigan.  who  always 
had  her  eyes  open  to  what  was  available  in 
Atherton.  had  marked  her  for  her  own  since 
she  had  first  employed  her.  pleased  with  the 
girTs  simplicity,  modesty,  precision,  and  deli- 
cacy of  taste,  as  well  as  bearing.  Mrs.  Carri- 
gan  had  never  meant  that  the  "Send  Me" 
should  drift  into  the  restrictions  or  exclusive- 
Baas  of  parish  circles  in  Atherton.  She  was 
more  than  glad  when  she  found  that  Miss 
Robidean  went  regularly  to  the  Catholic 
church  at  Asney.  though  it  cost  her  a  long 
ride,  and  she  knew  that  there  could  not  be  too 
much  money  in  that  purse.  She  had  urged 
the  girls  to  follow  up  their  acquaintance  with 
the  stranger,  and  had  succeeded,  with  some 
difficulty,  in  ^persuading  her  to  join  them. 
She  was  more  than  pleased,  therefore,  with  her 
willingness  and  good  sense,  which  showed  that 
she  had  so  well  taken  in  the  motive  and  plans 
of  the  Order. 


256  SYBIL    KNOX. 

"I  can  gladly  go  Tuesday  nights  regularly, 
unless  the  weather  is  too  severe."  It  is  Miss 
Robideau  who  speaks.  "  And  Friday,  also,  if 
anybody  wants  me.  I  can  go  out  on  the  mail 
train.  You  know  it  passes  here  at  six  seven, 
and  I  would  close  the  shop  those  nights  a 
little  early.  Then  I  would  come  back  on  the 
morning  milk  train  ;  that  comes  in  at  half-past 
seven,  quite  in  time  for  my  breakfast.  But  I 
should  have  to  find  some  nice  person  there 
who  would  sleep  me"  she  said,  laughing. 
"Do  you  know,  Mrs.  Knox,  if  I  can  manage 
that  part?  I  believe  it  will  work  beauti- 
fully." 

Sybil  Knox  listened  with  a  real  admiration. 
That  is  to  say,  pleasure  and  surprise  mingled 
as  she  heard  this  poor  girl,  who  had  to  work 
for  her  daily  bread,  so  unaffectedly  give  away 
two  of  her  precious  evenings  every  week, 
simply  to  be  of  some  use  to  other  people  ;  and 
as  she  listened  she  felt,  with  satisfaction 
hardly  to  be  told,  that  her  turn  had  now  come. 

"Better  than  that,  Mademoiselle.  I  speak 
French  a  little  myself.  Though  these  Cana- 
dian boys  may  not  wholly  like  my  accent,  I 


SYBIL   KNOX.  257 

know  I  can  make  them  understand.  I  am  not 
ranch  at  chess,  bnt  I  can  play  jackstraws  and 
dominoes.  Now  my  plan  is  this :  We  are  not 
wanted  there  till  seven.  It  is  only  three  miles 
across.  Yon  shall  shut  the  shop  early,  as  you 
say.  I  will  send  down  regularly  for  you  and 
you  shall  come  up  to  me — it  is  half  a  mile  on 
the  way,  yon  know — and  we  will  have  a 
hurried  cup  of  tea.  Then  we  will  drive  over 
to  Lyman's,  put  the  hack  in  some  shed  they 
will  have,  play  jackstraws  and  tweedle-John, 
and  come  back  together.  I  shall  drive  my- 
self— if  you  are  not  afraid  of  my  driving.  If 
you  will  take  the  bed  at  our  house  you  shall 
have  breakfast  when  you  wilL" 

The  shy  Frenchwoman  hardly  knew  how  to 
take  this  eager,  but  very  acceptable,  invita- 
tion. She  was  really  too  modest  to  be  willing 
to  throw  herself  so  freely  on  another,  whom 
she  only  had  met  that  afternoon.  And  she 
had  that  wretched  consciousness  that,  as 
things  were,  she  in  no  way  could  offer  any 
courtesy  to  Mrs.  Knox  on  the  same  scale. 
Still,  she  was  well  bred,  so  she  knew  how  to 
express  her  thanks,  and,  not  unnaturally,  she 


258  SYBIL    KNOX. 

fell  into  her  own  language.  She  thanked  Mrs. 
Knox,  while  she  expressed  the  fear  that  she 
made  trouble.  Here  Mrs.  Carrigan  interfered. 

"  Trouble,  ma  ckere,  of  course  it  makes 
trouble.  Do  we  not  all  make  trouble  ?  Do 
not  the  boys  over  at  Lyman's  make  the  very 
trouble  we  want  to  mend  ?  Does  not  Gross- 
bein,  who  sells  the  lager  to  them,  make  more 
trouble  ?  Just  what  we  are  Sent  for  is  to  undo 
trouble,  and  what  we  are  pledged  for  is  to  take 
trouble  on  our  shoulders  which  other  people 
would  have  to  bear." 

She  was  so  voluble  in  her  eloquence  that  they 
all  laughed,  and  Mrs.  Knox,  who  had  a  certain 
shyness  of  her  own,  was  better  able  to  press 
her  offer.  She  wanted  to  lend  a  hand,  and  this 
seemed  the  simple  way. 

"  Simple  or  not  simple,  it  is  the  way  we  will 
doit,"  said  Mrs.  Carrigan.  "I  am  president 
of  this  branch,  so  that  I  may  have  things  done, 
and  I  decide  that  this  is  the  best  way  to  do 
this.  Let  no  one  rebel. 

"More  seriously,"  she  added,  as  they  seated 
themselves  at  a  little  table  with  some  beef- tea 
before  them  and  some  bread  and  butter — 


SYBIL   KNOX.  359 

**  more  seriously,  I  suppose  that  in  the  twen- 
tieth century  we  shall  pnt  our  opportunities  to- 
gether in  rather  different  relations  from  those 
they  hold  conventionally  to-day.  That  is,  just 
as  a  soldier  is  in  '  the  service,*  you  know,  and 
there  is  no  lack  of  modesty  when  he  says  he 
may  \te  called  at  an  instant,  and  must  obey  on 
the  instant — I  suppose  it  will  then  be  all 
natural  and  simple  for  every  one  to  stand  in 
the  attitude  of  *  Send  Me.'  And  we  shall  go 
off  two  and  two.  shall  we  not,  where  there  is 
anything  to  be  done,  as  Philip  went  off  with 
Bartholomew,  and  John  with  James,  as  if  it 
were  a  thing  of  course  to  go  where  we  were  told 
to  go? 

"  But  mark  this/*  said  the  dictatorial  lady, 
"nobody  goes  two  nights  in  the  week  from  the 
Send  Me  to  Lyman's  Mills,  or  anywhere  else. 
We  abolished  slavery  in  1863.  Now  slavery 
consists  in  being  bound  by  certain  appoint- 
ments to  do  things  not  contemplated  when  you 
entered  into  bondage.  We  have  force  enough 
to  send  some  one  else  Friday.  Clara,  book 
Mrs.  Knox  and  Miss  Robideau  for  Tuesdays  at 
layman's.** 


260  SYBIL    KNOX. 

The  arrival  of  the  beef-tea  and  bread  aud 
butter  broke  the  party  up  into  four  or  five  dif- 
ferent knots.  There  were,  in  fact,  so  many 
working-parties  who  had  different  enterprises 
on  hand.  Beside  the  reading-room  at  Lyman's 
there  was  a  loan  collection  of  prints  ;  there  was 
an  arrangement  for  reading  to  the  men  who 
could  not  read  at  the  Soldiers  Retreat ;  there 
was  a  commission  on  the  town  park,  which  was 
trying  to  make  an  Arboretum  of  Vermont 
there ;  and  there  was  a  committee  on  the  town 
poorhouse.  At  this  time  the  Send  Me  had  all 
these  enterprises  in  hand. 

When  Mrs.  Knox  returned  to  her  home  from 
the  meeting  of  Send  Me,  late  in  the  evening, 
the  afternoon's  mail  awaited  her. 

She  looked  at  it  with  some  indifference,  sure 
only  that  it  would  contain,  what  she  now  ex- 
pected once  a  week — directions  from  all  her 
men  of  business,  cousins,  and  cousins'  wives, 
to  sell  out  her  C.  &  O.  stock.  Still,  one  must 
look  at  the  outsides  of  one's  letters.  So  she 
turned  over  the  bunch,  rather  larger  than 
usual,  and  her  indifference  vanished  when  she 
saw  the  well-known  hand  of  John  Coudert. 


SYBIL    KSOX.  261 


His  letter  was  long  for  a  person  who  had  had 
so  little  correspondence  with  her,  and  deals 
with  matters  so  far  remote  from  Atherton 
that  they  must  make  the  subject  of  another 
chapter. 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

John  Coudert  to  Sybil  Knox. 

DOKCASVILLE,  McDoWELL  Co., 

October  7. 
MY  DEAK  MKS.  KNOX  : 

(If  that  is  still  your  name.)  I  do  not  know 
how  you  think  this  world  is  governed.  But 
one  of  those  surprises,  which  make  one  think 
that  somebody  directs  it  who  knows  what  he  is 
about,  has  just  now  put  me  in  possession  of  in- 
formation to  which  you  are  entitled. 

It  is  only  within  an  hour  that  I  have  learned 
that  I  may  probably  still  address  you — as  I  am 
most  glad  to  do — as  Mrs.  Knox  ;  or  that  I  was 
right  in  so  addressing  you  on  the  7th  of  August, 
when  I  had  the  pleasure  of  writing  you  from 
St.  Louis. 

Oddly  enough,  this  pleasant  news  came  to 
me  in  a  prison,  and  through  the  intervention 
of  our  poor  friend,  Berlitz,  regarding  whom  at 
that  time  I  wrote  to  you.  I  suppose  you  were 
not  able  to  give  me  any  information  about  him. 
But  a  letter  his  wife  wrote  him,  from  your 
house,  has  arrived,  and  I  hope  his  answer  to 


SYBIL.    KXOX. 


hers  wfll  reach  her  by  the  mail  which  brings 
you  this, 


Beading  so  far.  Mrs.  Knox  rang  the 
and  was  told  at  once  that  Mis.  Berlitz  had  a 
letter  from  her  husband  and  had  been  crying 
till  she  went  to  bed.  The  other  "girls"  had 
given  her  what  they  called  a  sleeping-mixture 
of  hops,  and  she  was  now  asleep.  They  had 
thought  it  best  not  to  bother  their  mistress 
about  this  until  morning. 

John  Cvudtrf* 


Mrs.  Berfitz"  3  letter  gives  your  address  with 
your  name  unchanged.  As  I  hare  no  later 
tidings  from  you.  you  win  understand  my 

Fifing  the  <i  •••^»  aafjluiim. 

I  write  on  the  same  subject  on  which  I  ad- 
dressed you  from  St.  Louis.  I  can  well  under- 
stand that  all  your  advisers  are  begging  you  to 
sacrifice  our  poor  C.  &  O.  kid  to  the  mercies  of 
any  priest  who  will  cut  its  throat  for  you.  I 
write  to  beg  you  not  to  do  so.  And.  strangely 
enough,  it  is  your  kimlaiHat  to  Frau  Berlitz 
which  puts  me  almost  in  a  position  of  certainty 
in  this  affair. 

Strange  to  say.  if  anything  were  strange  in 
tills  world.  Berlitz  proves  to  be  a  most  impor- 


264  SYBIL   KNOX. 

tant  witness  in  the  chain  of  testimony  by  which 
we  hope  to  bring  Baal,  the  King  of  Iniquity,  as 
I  suppose  you  know,  to  trial.  Berlitz  is  in 
prison  himself  for  no  fault  whatever.  Make 
that  sure  to  his  wife.  He  detected  an  incendiary, 
he  was  without  counsel,  almost  without  an  in- 
terpreter, and,  "for  the  greater  caution,"  as 
the  lawyers  say,  he  was  shut  up  himself  in 
prison  for  two  years,  because  nobody  knew 
what  else  to  do  with  him.  The  incident  of  the 
letter  has  given  me  an  opportunity  to  see  all  the 
papers  which  were  on  his  person  when  he  was 
imprisoned.  Strange  to  say,  one  of  these 
papers  supplies  what  I  have  said  is  the  miss- 
ing link  in  an  astounding  line  of  testimony, 
which  we  hope  will  break  up  the  great  con- 
spiracy against  our  road.  I  hardly  know  why 
I  call  it  a  conspiracy  which  is  conceived  in  the 
brain  of  one  man,  and  carried  out  with  pitiless 
resolution. 

I  beg  you,  my  dear  Mrs.  Knox,  not  to  think 
that  I  wish  to  force  .a  correspondence  upon  you, 
when  I  know  that  you  already  have  more  friends 
than  any  other  person  in  the  world.  I  should 
not  have  taken  the  liberty  to  write  a  second 
time,  but  that  I  can  now,  as  you  see,  give 
almost  absolute  confirmation  to  the  advice 
which  I  gave  in  my  letter  from  St.  Louis.  But 
I  should  like  the  favor  of  a  reply,  letting  me 


SYBEL    KXOX.  3   ^ 

know  that  you  have  received  this  letter.  Unless 
you  wish  it,  then.  I  will  not  trouble  you  with 
farther  advice  in  a  matter  which.  I  can  well 
conceive,  may  be  very  annoying  to  you. 
Truly  yours. 

JOHN  COUDEET. 

It  is  hard  to  say  whether  this  letter  gave  to 
Mrs.  Knox  more  pleasure  or  more  pain.  Ex- 
quisite pain,  one  might  almost  call  the  surprise 
that  she  felt  that  he  had  evidently  never  re- 
ceived the  cordial  letter  which  she  had  written 
to  him  on  receipt  of  his  letter  from  St.  Louis. 
Exquisite  pleasure,  it  must  be  confessed,  at  one 
or  two  of  the  expressions,  where  he  said  he 
was  glad  to  call  her  still  Sybil  Knox,  and  spoke 
of  the  announcement  of  that  simple  fact  as 
"pleasant  news," 

She  did  not  permit  herself  to  go  to  bed  this 
time  before  she  wrote  her  hasty  answer,  and 
placed  upon  it  a  stamp  for  immediate  delivery. 
It  was  simply  to  say  that  she  was  glad  of  the 
good  news,  that  she  had  not  ventured  to  wake 
Mrs.  Berlitz  from  her  sleep,  that  she  had 
trusted  fully  to  his  advice  in  the  matter  of  the 
investments,  and  that  she  should  continue  to 


266  SYBIL    KNOX. 

do  so.  It  also  expressed,  Ayith  sufficient  eager- 
ness, her  regret  that  he  had  never  received  the 
letter  which  she  had  written  him  at  once  in 
answer  to  his.  It  ended  in  these  words,  which 
tried  to  be  humorous  : 

I  am  still  Mrs.  Knox,  and  am  likely  to  be.  I 
cannot  conceive  how  you  heard  anything  else, 
excepting  that  there  are  many  Mrs.  Knoxes 
in  the  world,  and  probably  there  is  now  some- 
body who  is  rejoicing  in  another  name.  But  I 
have  no  friends  in  Memphis,  and  am  ashamed 
to  say  that  I  hardly  knew  where  Memphis 
was. 

I  am  doing  my  best  to  keep  the  promise 
which  I  think  I  made  to  you,  that  I  would  see 
to  the  full  what  a  country  town  in  Vermont 
has  for  life,  before  I  pretended  to  think  that 
Paris  or  Rome  or  Washington  could  give  me  a 
better  home.  Thus  far  I  am  happy  here,  and 
have  not  found  many  of  the  drawbacks  which 
kind  friends  forewarned  me  of. 

I  cannot  thank  you  enough  for  your  loyal 
interest  to  the  holders  in  this  almost  ship- 
wrecked property.  If  no  one  else  knows  how 
much  we  owe  to  you,  be  sure  that  I  do,  and 
that  I  am  always, 

Truly  yours, 

SYBIL  KNOX, 


SYBIL   K>'OX.  267 

This  letter  came  to  John  Coudert  while  he 
was  still  starring  at  Dorcasville.  It  did  him 
what  the  people  of  that  country  call  "  no  end 
of  good.**  Physically  he  needed  some  sup- 
port, for  he  was  literally  starring  on  the  pro- 
yision  of  salt  pork,  dropped  eggs,  bakers 
crackers,  and  doughnuts,  which  was  made  for 
him  with  unchanging  regularity  three  times  a 
day  in  the  broken-down  inn.  He  was  no 
epicure,  but,  to  a  man  who  had  been  used  to 
civilized  society,  the  utter  absence  of  coffee, 
for  which  a  curious  mixture  made  of  burned 
sweet  potatoes  was  substituted,  the  absence  at 
the  same  time  of  all  fresh  meat,  the  absence  of 
what  they  call  i4  soft  bread''  in  the  army,  and 
the  monotony  of  the  other  fare,  involved,  not 
questions  of  epicureanism,  but  serious  ques- 
tions of  health.  On  the  other  hand,  he  was  in 
the  midst  of  such  peaches  as  he  had  not  known 
were  in  the  world ;  and  if  a  man  could  live, 
as  Adam  and  Eve  did,  on  the  fruits  of  the 
orchard,  he  would  have  been  perfectly  happy. 

But  he  had  worse  distresses  than  those  of 
food  on  his  mind.  However,  he  was  in  for  the 
campaign,  and  he  knew  that,  if  he  were  in  for 


268  SYBIL    KNOX. 

the  campaign,  lie  must  live  as  a  soldier  lives. 
So  he  accepted  the  baker's  crackers  and  the 
fried  pork.  But  he  had  found  it  harder  to 
bury  the  remembrance,  which  rose  from  its 
grave  every  day,  that  Sybil  Knox  was  Sybil 
Somebody  else ;  and  the  other  remembrance, 
which  belonged  to  it,  that  she  had  never 
answered  the  letter  which  he  wrote  to  her. 
Now  that  it  appeared  that  she  had  answered 
the  letter,  and  that  she  was  Sybil  Knox,  life 
appeared  to  John  Coudert  from  a  very  differ- 
ent point  of  view. 

They  were  drawing  tighter  and  tighter  the 
strings,  and  yet  they  gave,  and  could  give,  no 
sign  abroad.  As  Coudert  read  his  New  York 
paper  from  day  to  day,  he  saw  that  the  prices 
of  the  C.  &  O.  stocks  and  bonds  went  down 
steadily.  It  was  clear  that  the  great  enemy 
himself  did  not  know  that  any  danger 
impended  over  him.  It  was  equally  clear  that 
sensitive  Wall  Street  had  not  found  out  yet 
that  any  attack  was  proposed  upon  him. 
There  was  not  a  syllable  of  discussion  in  the 
journals,  of  things  which  John  Coudert  had 
supposed  would  become  matter  of  public 


SYBIL   KXOX-  2     ' 

notoriety  at  once.  All  this  was  well  for  him 
and  his  friends,  the  governor  and  the  attorney- 
general. 

That  first  plan  in  which  the  governor,  enthu- 
siastic as  he  was,  had  engaged,  had  been  for 
the  time  abandoned.  He  had  proposed  to 
bring  all  three  of  the  contesting  railway  com- 
panies into  court,  and  ask  them  the  question 
why  they  were  not  dealing  fairly  by  the 
people  of  the  State,  who  had  given  them  their 
charters.  He  had  supposed  that,  even  in  face 
of  the  intelligence  and  wit  of  the  learned 
counsel  they  would  employ,  some  public 
answer  would  have  to  be  given  to  this  ques- 
tion! and  that  this  public  question  might  at 
least  be  a  basis  for  some  legislation  within 
his  State.  The  State  was,  fortunately,  large 
enough  to  contain  the  whole  line  of  the  C.  & 
O.  He  hoped  for  some  results  which  would 
compel  justice,  not  simply  to  the  C.  &  O.. 
which  was  now  being  crushed,  for  which  he 
cared  comparatively  less,  but  justice  also  for 
the  people  of  the  State,  who  were  not  receiving 
the  advantages  for  which  they  had  given  these 
valuable  charters  to  the  corporations  which 


270  SYBIL   KNOX. 

used  them.  Lawyers  must  decide  how  far  he 
would  have  succeeded  in  any  such  bold  en- 
deavor. As  it  happened,  that  experiment  was 
never  tried  before  the  admirable  Supreme 
Court  of  the  State,  sitting  in  equity,  and  this 
little  story  cannot  give  an  answer. 

His  attorney-general,  Scarlett,  saying  that 
he  would  not  rush  in  where  angels  had  thus 
far  failed  to  tread,  was  satisfied  that,  for  a 
beginning,  they  could  get  the  matter  before 
the  public,  which  was  what  he  thought  most 
important,  by  bringing  into  court  the  incen- 
diary again — not  on  the  offence  for  which  he 
had  already  served  out  a  part  of  his  punish- 
ment, but  on  a  new  indictment.  Any  reader 
will  see  that  this  was  at  best  difficult,  and  Mr. 
Scarlett  himself  knew  the  difficulty  quite  as 
well  as  we  know  it.  But  the  fortunate  dis- 
covery which  John  Coudert  had  made  at  Dor- 
casville — that  there  was  undoubtedly  a  real 
collusion  between  Walker  and  the  incendi- 
ary— gave  him  exactly  the  point  which  he 
needed.  Coudert  had  understood  enough  of 
criminal  law  to  make  intelligent  suggestions  to 
the  attorney-general,  and  on  those  suggestions 


SYBIL   KXOX.  271 

he  and  his  district-attorney  instantly  acted. 
Neither  Condert  nor  Scarlett,  in  their  impetu- 
osity, considered  it  desirable  to  show  their 
whole  hand  at  the  beginning.  But  they  were 
now  well  convinced  that  the  station  had  been 
burned  down  at  the  real  orders  of  Baal,  the 
great  and  ingenious  speculator  behind  the 
scenes,  who  had  obtained  the  control  of  the 
two  lines  which  the  C.  &  O.  united.  This 
man,  in  his  determination  to  obtain  command 
of  the  C.  &  O.,  for  years  past  had  been  doing 
everything  to  reduce  the  value  of  its  property 
in  the  market.  To  his  manipulations  was  due 
that  steady  decline  of  the  prices  of  its  bonds, 
and  other  securities,  which  struck  such  terror 
into  the  hearts  of  such  men  as  Convers  Knox. 
It  was  perfectly  clear,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  that 
the  poor  incendiary  had  been  the  tool  of  this 
arch-rascal's  ingenuity.  Now  they  knew  who 
was  the  agent  by  whom  he  had  acted  :  and  by 
prosecuting  Walker,  that  agent,  they  knew 
they  could  put  the  poor  fellow  himself  upon 
the  stand,  and  that  they  could  compel  the 
attendance  of  Baal  himself. 
Their  procedure  was  undoubtedly  a  bold 


272  SYBIL   KXOX. 

one.  They  knew  very  well  that  it  was  so. 
But  no  less  audacious  an  enterprise  had  any 
chances  of  success.  And  they  had  the  great 
advantage  that,  by  proceeding  thus,  they 
gave,  as  yet,  but  little  public  notice  of  what 
they  were  engaged  in.  and  had  all  the  possi- 
bilities of  a  fortunate  surprise.  They  knew 
very  well  that  prosecutions  for  conspiracy 
were,  as  they  ought  to  be,  difficult,  and,  if  one 
may  use  such  a  phrase,  unpopular.  But  they 
were  almost  indifferent  as  to  how  Walker 
might  come  out  from  his  danger.  Whether  a 
grand  jury  ever  did  or  did  not  find  an  indict- 
ment against  him,  they  cared  but  little.  They 
were  not  really  seeking  to  punish  poor 
Walker.  They  called  him  "poor  Walker," 
as  they  called  the  other  man  "poor  devil," 
because  they  sympathized  with  such  tools  of 
the  arch-conspirator.  But  they  did  expect 
that,  in  the  searching  analysis  which  would  be 
made  necessary  in  the  proceedings  before  the 
grand  jury  of  the  county,  and  afterward  in 
a  trial  in  open  court,  testimony  would  be 
brought  out,  which  would  be  published  before 
thf  world,  as  to  the  origin  of  the  constant  at- 


SYBIL    KXOX.  -2?o 

tacks  made  upon  the  poor  railway  for  whose 
rights  they  were  making  this  struggle.  And 
that  testimony  would  be  enough  to  place  them 
advantageously  before  the  great  court  of  pub- 
lic opinion. 


CHAPTER   XXIII. 

JOHN  COUDERT  had  had  but  little  to  do 
with  criminal  law,  in  a  practice  not  very 
long,  but  already,  in  its  own  line,  very  success- 
ful. But  he  had,  in  earlier  life,  met  with 
grand  juries  once  and  again,  in  his  experiences 
in  the  State  of  New  York.  Now  that  Mr. 
Scarlett  permitted  him  to  enter  the  room  of 
the  grand  jury  of  Wilson  County  with  him,  he 
found  many  things  in  Western  practice  which 
were  new  to  him  :  some  which  amused  him, 
many  which  pleased  him.  Before  half  an 
hour  was  over,  he  felt  that,  if  many  formalities 
were  omitted,  which,  to  a  tender-foot  like  him- 
self, would  have  been  pleasing,  there  was  a 
distinct  determination  to  come  at  justice, 
though  they  advanced  at  the  quick-step,  and 
with  few  impediments.  The  proceedings  be- 
fore a  grand  jury  are  not  open  to  the  public. 
They  are  conducted  in  definite  and  regular 
form,  but  with  more  of  a  conversational  man- 


STBH.  KXOX.  275 

ner,  and,  indeed,  with  more  ease,  than  those 
of  an  established  criminal  court  of  the  received 
pattern,  when  it  rises  above  the  methods  of  a 
simple  justice's  tribunal.  It  would  not  be  fair 
to  say  that  a  grand  jury  administers  law  in 
the  fashion  of  a  Cadi  in  the  "Arabian  Nights." 
But  there  is  more  of  the  openness  of  what  one 
might  call  the  free  interrogatory  methods  of 
the  French  courts,  than  we  are  all  used  to,  in 
the  somewhat  reticent  or  suspicious  habits  of 
the  more  open  criminal  courts  of  America  or 
of  England. 

It  would  be  impossible,  as  the  lawyers  de- 
cided, to  bring  the  incendiary  station-master 
to  trial  again.  He  had  been  tried,  and  con- 
victed, and  was  working  out  his  sentence,  too 
short,  perhaps,  for  their  notions  of  justice,  but 
still  a  sentence  assigned  by  the  law.  It  was 
not  in  the  county  court  at  Dorcasville,  there- 
fore, that  the  inquiry  was  held  which  now  in- 
terests us.  but  in  Wilson  County,  at  Coram- 
ville  itself,  the  county  town,  where  Walker, 
once  inspector  on  the  C.  &  O.,  had  been  ar- 
rested, and  where,  as  the  reader  knows,  were 
the  central  offices  of  that  hard-pressed  com- 


276  SYBIL    KNOX. 

pany.  But  Coudert  saw,  to  his  satisfaction, 
that  Berlitz  was  present,  and  at  his  side 
another  man,  who  was,  as  he  rightly  supposed, 
the  station-master.  They  had  been  brought 
across  as  witnesses. 

After  hearing  inquiries  and  listening  to  de- 
cisions in  one  or  two  other  cases,  in  the  very 
limited  criminal  calendar  of  the  county,  the 
foreman  of  the  gand  jury  was  told  that  noth- 
ing was  left  but  the  matter  of  the  C.  &  O. 
Railroad.  He  was  told,  and  the  jury  of  course 
were  told,  that  the  prosecuting  officer  of  the 
county  would  bring  before  them  evidence  to 
show  that  there  was  a  criminal  conspiracy  be- 
tween Obed  Sherman  Walker,  who  was  pres- 
ent, who  had  been  at  the  time  of  the  alleged 
offence  a  division -inspector  of  cars  on  the  C.  & 
0.,  with  one  Benjamin  Jefferson  May  berry, 
who  was  an  engine-driver  on  the  same  road, 
and  whom  the  attorney  had  hoped  to  bring 
forward  at  this  time,  but  who  had  escaped,  and 
with  a  switch-tender  named  Michael  Sweeney, 
who  had  been  killed  in  the  collision  which 
had  resulted  from  the  conspiracy.  The  jury 
were  told  that  the  case  was  the  same  case  in 


277 

be- 
fore had  made  inquest,  but  where  they  had 
then  refused  to  bring  in  any  bilL 

The  attorney  knew  rery  well,  he  said,  that 
this  fact  would  prejudice  the  present  jury 
making  a  second  inquiry,  and  he  con- 
.  that  it  ought  to.  But  justice  was  justice, 
he  said,  eren  if  long  delayed.  He  knew  that  he 
was  addressing  the  leading  men  of  the  county, 
and  ho  knew  that  they  were  as  anxious  as  he 
was,  thai  Wilson  County  should  not  be  known 
the  civilized  world  as  the  home  of 
who  went  unpunished.  The  world 
Wilson  County  now,  he  said,  by  the 
terrible  slaughter,  called  an  accident,  in  which, 
forty  men  and  women,  sane  of  them  sleeping 
in  fancied  security,  had  been  of  a  sudden  hur- 
ried into  another  world  to  meet  the  great  Tri- 
bunal which  was  the  only  Tribunal  which 
knew  no  delays  in  justice.  Iff o  true  man  in 
that  county  wished  that  the  world  should  sup- 
pose that  it  had  not  manhood  enough  and 
courage  enough  to  detect  and  to  punish  the 
wrong-doers.  He  had  now  in  his  possession 
what  was,  he  was  sure,  sufficient  evidence  to 


278  SYBIL    KNOX. 

show  to  the  jury  who  one  of  those  wrong- 
doers was.  It  might  be  that  the  evidence  as 
it  was  presented  would  implicate  others.  He 
was  sure  that,  if  the  sheriffs  of  other  counties 
were  as  active  as  their  own  sheriff  had  been, 
the  man  Mayberry  might  be  brought  before 
them,  even  before  they  were  dismissed.  The 
wretch  Sweeney,  who  had,  as  the  attorney  be- 
lieved, turned  the  fatal  switch,  which  had  led 
the  train  to  its  destruction,  had  himself  gone 
on  the  instant  to  the  august  Tribunal  of 
which  the  attorney  had  reminded  them. 

All  of  this  address  was  rounded  off  and 
adorned  with  much  more  fustian  than  would 
ordinarily  have  been  given  to  its  decoration. 
But  the  presence  of  Scarlett,  his  distinguished 
chief,  from  the  capital  of  the  State,  and  of 
Coudert,  whom  he  knew  only  as  a  New  York 
lawyer  brought  in  to  assist  Scarlett,  did  some- 
thing to  turn  the  head  of  the  local  official. 

He  then  explained  that  he  had  put  the  case 
at  the  end  of  the  calendar  which  he  had  pre- 
pared for  the  examination  of  the  grand  jury, 
because  he  had  been  waiting  for  an  important 
witness,  who  had  not,  however,  arrived.  He 


SYBIL   KXOX.  279 

would  go  on  without  him  as  wefl  as  possible. 
At  that  very  moment,  however,  the  door  of  the 
room  opened,  and,  led  by  an  officer  of  the 
court,  the  great  magnate  of  railroads  came  in. 
Neither  Coudert  nor  Scarlett  had  ever  seen  him 
before,  and,  until  this  moment,  Scarlett  had 
not  believed  that  he  would  come  on  any  such 
summons  as  had  been  issued.  Indeed,  he 
felt  that,,  in  the  very  audacity  of  his  appear- 
ance at  such  an  inquiry,  the  man  had  scored 
an  important  point.  He  knew  that  the  jury 
would  be  favorably  impressed  by  the  fact  that 
a  man  whose  goings  and  comings  filled  the 
world,  was  enough  interested  in  Coramville 
and  Wilson  County,  and  the  session  of  the 
criminal  court  there,  and  the  truth  or  falsehood 
of  certain  charges  about  the  smash-up,  to  leave 
Wall  Street  and  the  manipulation  of  politics, 
to  be  present  at  their  requisition. 

The  witness  was,  in  fact,  the  celebrated 
stock  operator,  Winfield  Baal,  who  was,  as 
Scarlett  and  Coudert  were  both  sure,  at  the 
bottom  of  all  the  misfortunes  of  the  C.  &  O. 
Neither  of  them  had  ever  seen  him,  but 
neither  of  them  had  read  a  newspaper  for  five 


280  SYBIL    KNOX. 

years  which  had  not  done  its  part  to  contribute 
to  the  mystery  which,  in  the  eyes  of  ignorant 
people,  surrounded  him. 

For  the  man  himself,  he  was,  perhaps,  the 
most  unpretending-looking  man  in  the  room. 
His  dress  was  simple,  and  his  manner  quiet. 
You  might  have  thought  him  a  schoolmaster, 
a  little  unbusinesslike,  who  had  come  to  make 
a  copy  of  his  father's  will,  and  had  turned  to 
the  left  instead  of  going  to  the  right,  in  the 
court-house.  You  would  have  said  that  he 
was  one  of  the  simple  kind  of  men  who  are 
used  to  making  such  unpractical  blunders. 

After  a  moment's  pause  the  attorney  went 
on  with  his  speech.  The  charge  against 
Walker  was  that  he  had  conspired  with  other 
persons  to  wreck  a  through  freight  train, 
known  as  21,  when  it  passed  the  Allendale 
station  of  the  C.  &  O.  The  intent  was  to  throw 
the  train  off  the  proper  track,  at  a  place  where 
it  would  rush  down  a  high  enbankment  into 
the  Willow  Creek.  In  point  of  fact  the  night- 
express  south  crossed  the  trestle  over  Willow 
Creek  just  as  the  ill-fated  freight  train  was 
crossing  the  down  track,  being  behind  time, 


5YBTL 

and  trying  to  make  np  time  so  as  to  sare  an 
important  connection.  It  had  literally  cut  in 
two  the  freight  train,  which  was  crossing  its 
track.  In  the  collision  its  engine-drirer  and 
fireman  were  killed  and  nearly  forty  passen- 
gers and  train-hands.  Xo  one  supposed  that 
this  part  of  the  calamity  was  intended  by  the 
conspirators.  But  it  had  followed  upon  it. 
And  it  was  this  awful  fatality  which  had  inter- 
ested the  world  in  the  inquiry  which  they  were 
pursuing.  Bnt  in  pursuing  that  inquiry  they 
most  remember  that  the  prisoner  had  shown 
his  purpose  on,  at  least,  one  other  occasion. 
In  a  certain  sense  the  jury  would  hare  to  con- 
duct two  inquiries. 

And  yet,  in  a  larger  sense,  these  two  in- 
quiries were  one.  The  fated  freight  train — 
and  he  should  show  them  why  it  was  fated — 
had  arrived  at  the  station  where  it  was 
wrecked  four  hoars  behind  time.  Had  it  been 
on  time  there  would  hare  been  daylight, 
there  would  hare  been  present  half  the  people 
of  the  Tillage,  and  all  the  station  officers. 
The  jury  would  soon  learn  that  it  was  behind 
time  because  this  man  Walker  meant  that  it 


282  SYBIL    KNOX. 

should  be  behind  time.  He  was  the  inspector. 
He  was  the  general  inspector.  Every  man 
who  had  inspected  the  train  at  Adair  had  been 
appointed  by  him,  and  was  under  his  orders. 
The  jury  would  learn  that  at  Adair,  on  this 
fatal  day,  Walker  had  refused  the  advice  of 
his  best  subordinates.  He  had  placed  cars  in 
that  train  which  were  not  fit  to  go.  "  Gentle- 
men, they  were  not  fit  to  stand  on  a  side- 
track for  hog- pens."  Such  a  train  never  had 
started  since  railways  were  invented,  accord- 
ing to  the  county  attorney.  So,  as  the  brake- 
men  would  show  them,  the  train  had  lost  time 
all  day.  There  had  been  hot  boxes.  There 
had  been  broken  couplings.  Cars  had  been  in 
the  wrong  place,  so  that  it  took  long  to  leave 
them  at  way-stations.  "What  business,  in 
fact,  had  these  way-cars  to  be  in  a  through 
train  at  all  ?  One  of  his  minions  placed  them 
there." 

For  each  of  these  failures  he  should  have  to 
produce  a  different  witness,  for  he  was  en- 
gaged in  that  difficult  business  of  proving  a 
negative.  But  he  would  show  them  in  seven 
different  cases  that  this  faithless  inspector  had 


SYBIL   KXOX.  :2S-3 

made  himself  personally  responsible  for  the 
detail  of  omission  or  of  commission  which  had 
resulted  in  this  delay.  This  would  be  the  first 
branch  of  their  inquiry.  He  would  then  pro- 
ceed, by  another  inquiry,  to  show  them  how 
this  delay  was  connected  with  the  terrible  col- 
lision in  which  both  trains  were  crushed,  in 
what  men  were  pleased  to  call  the  accident 
with  which  the  world  rang. 

If  the  county  attorney  were  giren  to  a  little 
fustian  and  mere  decoration  in  his  speech,  yet 
he  did  his  work  well :  he,  or  John  Coudert 
behind  him.  The  grand  jury  now  had  the 
benefit  of  the  money  which  Condert  and  his 
friends  among  the  lambs  of  the  C.  &  O.  had 
contributed,  for  the  expense  of  hunting  up  wit- 
nesses in  a  transaction  which  was  now  passing 
into  history.  There  was  a  little  host  of  these 
men.  They  were  all  sent  out  of  the  court- 
room before  the  inquiry  began,  and  they  came 
in,  one  by  one,  to  tell  their  stories.  They 
were  men  of  every  grade  of  intelligence,  as 
they  were  men  of  very  different  positions. 
Man  after  man  told  his  different  story  of  par- 
ticular failure  where  he  had  warned  Walker 


284  SYBIL    KNOX. 

and  where  Walker  had  sent  him  about  other 
business.  In  five  separate  cases  the  witnesses 
were  brought  under  Coudert's  examination  to 
say  that  they  had  told  the  boss  that  the  car 
was  not  fit  to  go.  In  each  case  the  boss  had 
sworn  at  the  man  ;  generally,  indeed,  giving 
him  the  same  instruction,  to  "go  to  hell." 

In  one  instance,  indeed,  a  witness  of  literary 
turn  produced  his  diary,  in  which  he  had 
written  when  he  went  home  to  supper :  "  Had 
a  row  with  the  boss.  Told  him  the  through 
freight  would  go  to  hell  before  morning."  It 
was  this  part  of  the  inquiry  which  John 
Coudert  had  personally  conducted  in  these 
hot  summer  weeks.  As  it  went  on,  Mr.  Win- 
field  Baal  sat  quietly,  sometimes  listening  to 
the  witnesses  with  interest,  sometimes  reading 
his  New  York  newspaper,  and  twice  writing 
letters  on  a  pocket-pad,  which  he  had  with 
him,  as  if  they  had  been  suggested  to  him  by 
something  which  he  had  read.  It  was  not  till 
this  branch  of  the  inquiry  was  closed,  and  the 
prosecuting  officer  said  that  it  was  closed,  and 
that  he  should  now  proceed  to  the  other 
branch  of  the  inquest,  that  Baal  asked  him, 


SYBtt 

perfectly  civilly,  if  he  could  not  arrange  the 
inquiry  so  that  his  testimony  might  be  taken 
before  the  departure  of  the  afternoon  ^*|MJ'«N. 
for  St.  Louis.  "You  will  understand  better 
than  I  can."  he  said,  "for  I  bare  no  idea  why 
I  am  called  here  at  all  But  I  have  too  much 
respect  for  this  county  and  its  citizens,  not  to 
obey  their  call,  even  at  some  personal  incon- 
venience." He  said  this  without  any  sneer  or 
irony,  and,  indeed^  there  was  something  in  his 
look,  as  he  surveyed  the  room  gravely,  which 
would  have  given  a  stranger  the  impression 
that,  after  years  of  travel  and  care  and 
anxiety.  Mr.  Baal  had  found  in  a  corner  room 
in  the  court-house  of  Coramville  the  place  that 
best  filled  his  noblest  conceptions  of  architec- 
ture, of  comfort,  and  of  fitness  for  the  purpose 
of  life.  Coudert  could  not  but  observe  that  at 
the  moment  of  Baal's  arrival  in  the  court  room 
the  face  of  the  prisoner  had  lighted  up  with 
relief  and  satisfaction.  Every  one  dee  was 
looking  at  Baal ;  but  Coudert  was  looking  mt 
Walker.  When  again,  after  the  long  and 
tedious  testimony,  Baal  made  this  courteous 
request  of  the  county  attorney.  Walker  again 


286  SYBIL   KNOX. 

sat  up  in  his  chair  as  if  he  were  tired  no 
longer,  and  the  moment  of  his  release  had 
come. 

Coudert  was  more  sure  than  ever,  if  possible, 
that  the  two  men  were  in  the  same  boat,  and 
that  the  guilt  of  the  one  was  the  guilt  of  the 
other. 


CHAPTER  X  V  I  \" 


AT  this  moment  Mr.  Scarlett  :''--_   :,::   : 
Jt\   for  the  Slate,  rase,  and  said  to  Mr.  Baal 
that  the  government  woidd  be  able  to  meet  his 


"My  brother  has  confided  to  m<v' he  said. 
22  the  investigations  into  this  part  of  the  case, 
and  I  know  the  witnesses  personally.  The 
giMllpmMi  of  the  grand  jury  may  not  recollect 
that,  within  a  fortnight  of  the  time  of  the  col- 
Bsiuo,  of  which  we  hare  thus  far  been  tracing 
f ,  a  station  was  burned,  under  cir- 
whieh  «grrfiiii<i  general  curiosity. 
to  secure  justice  in  that 
•star  was  imprisoned, 
together  with  a  trareUer  who  was  at  the  spot  at 
the  time,  who  was  gajfliUBed  to  be  an  accom- 
plice. We  shall  show  to  you,  gentiemen.  that, 
a  few  days  before  the  burning  of  the 
the  station-master  and  the  man  Walker 
here  were  in  close  conference  in  the 


288  SYBIL   KNOX. 

itself,  and  we  shall  show  you  that  Mr.  Wiu- 
field  Baal,  the  president  of  the  Great  Midland 
Company,  was  in  conference  with  them.  This 
conference  was  held  between  the  hours  of 
twelve  and  one  o'clock  at  night,  not  a  time 
when  the  presidents  of  railroads  are  apt  to  con- 
sult the  subordinates  of  other  and  rival  roads. 
We  have  not  included  Mr.  Baal  in  the  charge 
which  we  make  of  conspiracy,  between  Black, 
the  station-master,  and  Walker,  who  is  before 
you,  and  the  engine-man,  who  has  thus  far  es- 
caped us.  But  we  are  very  desirous  to  know 
from  Mr.  Baal  what  passed  in  the  interview  to 
which  I  have  alluded.  As  an  unprejudiced 
third  party,"  and  here  there  was  a  certain  scorn 
in  Mr.  Scarlett's  manner,  "he  will  be  able  to 
give  to  the  jury  testimony  which  will  be  of  in- 
terest to  them.  Mr.  Baal,  you  may  take  the 
stand." 

At  this  little  address  it  was  clear  to  every- 
body who  looked  on  that  Mr.  Baal  was  startled. 
He  crossed  the  room  and  took  the  stand  with 
an  affected  ease,  but  it  was  quite  clear  to  every 
man  on  the  jury,  as  it  was  clear  to  each  of  the 
counsel,  that  his  ease  was  only  affected.  He 


SYBIL  KXOX.  28J 

took  the  oath,  however,  calmly,  and  with  a 
reverential  manner,  and  bowed  to  Mr.  Scarlett, 
to  intimate  that  he  was  ready  for  any  ques- 
tions. 

The  first  question  which  was  pnt  to  him  was 
not  what  he  had  expected.  He  had  supposed, 
in  the  rapid  moments  he  had  had  for  thought, 
that  he  should  be  asked  where  he  was  on  the 
night  in  question.  But  Mr.  Scarlett  said  : 

"  What  passed  between  Walker  and  Black 
in  the  interview  to  which  I  have  alluded  *" 

To  this  question  Mr.  Baal's  answer  was  : 

"How  can  you  expect  me  to  remember 
where  I  was  on  a  given  night  fifteen  months 
•go  1  I  do  not  sleep  twice  in  the  same  bed  for 
ten  successive  nights,  perhaps ;  and  now  you 
ask  me  where  I  was  on  a  particular  evening.** 

Mr.  Scarlett  replied  quietly  : 

"  I  have  not  asked  you  where  you  were.  I 
asked  you  what  passed  between  Walker  and 
Black."  And  thus,  in  their  first  encounter, 
Mr.  Baal  was  overthrown,  and  a  little  ruffled. 
So  soon  as  he  had  recovered  himself,  however, 
he  spoke,  in  a  dignified  way,  with  perfect 
scorn  of  the  attorney3  s  question.  How  should 


290  SYBIL   KNOX. 

he  know  what  passed  in  the  station  of  a  road 
with  which  he  had  nothing  to  do  ?  It  was  his 
misfortune  that  he  often  had  to  use  the  line  of 
the  C.  &  O.  road.  He  was  sorry,  for,  in  his 
opinion,  it  was  a  line  very  badly  run,  and,  so 
far  as  he  could  judge  from  the  testimony 
which  he  had  been  permitted  to  hear,  it  was 
not  a  wonder  that  passengers  disliked  it  and 
avoided  it.  But  the  supposition  that  he  was  in 
one  or  another  station,  when  he  could  possibly 
avoid  being  there,  was  absurd. 

Mr.  Scarlett  put  several  ingenious  questions, 
trying  to  draw  the  witness  from  this  position, 
but  entirely  in  vain.  Mr.  Baal  said  again  and 
again  that  the  supposition  was  ridiculous  ;  that, 
although  he  knew  the  station  in  question  per- 
fectly well,  because  he  passed  it  three  or  four 
times  a  year  as  he  went  east  and  west,  he  had 
not  set  foot  in  it  since  the  day  of  the  County 
Fair,  four  or  five  years  before.  He  remem- 
bered that  he  was  there  then,  because  at  that 
time  he  had  been  asked  to  make  a  speech  at  the 
dinner. 

"In  point  of  fact,"  he  said,  "I  must  have 
been  in  the  sleeping-car  every  time  I  have 


SYBIL  KXOX.  291 

passed  through  that  town  for  the  last  four 
years.  For  it  is  my  habit  to  go  to  sleep  at  nine 
every  evening,  and  I  know  the  schedule  well 
enongh  to  know  that  the  trains  in  each  direc- 
tion pass  there  after  that  hour." 

With  this  ingenious  mathematical  statement 
he  smiled  rather  malignly  on  the  foreman,  and 
then  looked  at  Mr.  Scarlett  as  if  to  ask  if 
there  were  any  other  testimony  that  conld  be 
expected  from  him. 

Scarlett  said  that  he  would  not  ask  him  to 
keep  the  stand  any  longer.  "  But  I  shall  have 
occasion  to  call  you  again,  and  I  have  no  ob- 
jection to  your  hearing  what  our  other  wit- 
ncoooo  say."  Hie  accordingly  called  in  the 
next  witness,  who  was  in  waiting.  The  exam- 
ination was  fairly  dramatic. 

"  Mr.  Stevenson,  are  you  the  conductor  of 
the  night-express  on  the  Toothed  Lightning  ? "' 

"  Xo,  sir.  I  am  the  station-master  at  Adair. 
I  was  the  conductor  on  the  night-express  till 
last  January."' 

"Will  you  tell  these  gentlemen  whom  you 
know  of  the  persons  in  this  room  who  are  not 
sitting  on  the  grand  jury  *" 


292  SYBIL   KNOX. 

"I  know  you,  sir,  I  know  Mr.  Coudert,  and 
I  know  Mr.  Baal,"  bowing  to  Mr.  Baal. 

"How  long  have  you  known  Mr.  Baal ?  " 

"I  do  not  remember  when  I  did  not  know 
him,  sir.  He  often  used  to  pass  over  the  road. 
He  is  the  president  of  the  Great  Midland,  I 
think.  He  was  the  president  of  the  Great  Mid- 
land, and  travelled  through  upon  their  pass." 

"  Did  you  see  him  on  the  night  of  the  fourth 
of  June  last  year?  " 

"I  did,  sir." 

"  Where  did  you  see  him  ?  " 

"He  gave  me  a  ticket  for  St.  Louis  on  the 
night-express.  I  noticed  the  ticket  because  I 
knew  he  could  travel  on  a  pass,  and  he  gener- 
ally did." 

"Was  he  dressed  as  he  was  usually 
dressed?" 

"  No,  sir.  He  was  dressed  in  a  heavy  ulster, 
with  a  Scotch  cap.  But  I  knew  him.  He  un- 
buttoned his  ulster  when  he  gave  me  the 
ticket,  and  I  knew  the  pin  he  wore.  I  had 
noticed  it  the  week  before,  when  he  came  out 
with  me  from  St.  Louis.  I  was  surprised  when 
he  left  the  train  at  Homer." 


SYBIL  KSTOX.  293 

"You  are  sure  that  he  left  the  train  at 
Homer?" 

"  I  know  he  did,  because  I  spoke  of  it  at  the 
office  at  Adair.  I  spoke  of  it  to  Malcolm,  who 
was  then  ticket-master,  and  Malcolm  left  Adair 
the  next  day.  He  told  me  that  night  that  he 
had  got  a  rise,  and  he  has  been  the  general 
ticket-agent  at  Pinzon  ever  since." 

Here  Mr.  Baal  rose  in  his  seat,  and  said : 

"  This  good  fellow  is  entirely  mistaken.  I 
know  him  perfectly,  and  he  is  a  very  intelli- 
gent officer,  but  he  has  wholly  mistaken  his 
man." 

This  was  irregular,  but,  naturally  enough,  it 
was  passed  over.  Mr.  Scarlett  then  called 
Black,  who  came  in  with  a  great-coat  over  him, 
which  covered  his  prison  uniform. 

A  few  questions  showed  that  he  was  in  prison 
for  the  incendiarism.  With  great  volubility  he 
declared  that  the  evidence  was  all  false  on 
which  he  had  been  convicted,  Scarlett  at- 
tempted to  make  him  give  some  account  of  an 
interview,  the  week  before,  with  Mr.  Baal. 
But  the  man  was  perfectly  firm  in  denying  any 
such  interview,  and  any  hopes  that  Scarlett 


294  SYBIL   KNOX. 

had  had  of  confusing  him  proved  quite  vain. 
The  attorney  then  produced,  however,  a  scrap 
of  paper,  and  said  : 

"  Mr.  Black,  this  paper  was  found  at  the 
bottom  of  your  desk.  Will  you  read  it  to  the 
jury?" 

Black  was  evidently  confused.  He  took  the 
paper,  began  to  read,  and  said  he  had  not  his 
glasses  and  could  not  read  well. 

"  It  is  not  badly  written,"  said  Mr.  Scarlett. 
"  The  foreman  can  read  it  to  the  jury."  And 
the  foreman  read : 

"  Walker  has  the  round-house  on  the  Great 
Midland,  Black  has  the  station  at  Americus, 

-  has  the  inspec ,  Sweeney  has  two 

hundred  and  f — 

The  paper  was  torn  across,  so  that  the  jagged 
end  broke  the  words  which  were  not  fully 
spelled. 

"  We  shall  show  you,  gentlemen,"  said  Scar- 
lett to  the  jury,  "  where  this  paper  was  found. 
It  was  found  under  a  false  bottom  in  the  sta- 
tion-master's desk,  and  was  only  found  there 
after  the  trial  on  which  he  has  been  im- 
prisoned. We  expect  to  prove  to  you  that  the 


:::-.::  MB 


that  are  written  there  are  in  the 
writing  of  Mr.  Baal,  •  lump  httimHmj  yun  liiit1 
jot  now  heaxd.    Here  are  fire  letters  of  his, 

~ '  i"i  -  .1  " . "  1.  I.  -  i. .".:_.-.  . . :  I  L  T  "_  T  iz  -  ~  .  "  ••-  r 
of  the  Great  IJMhiid  IK  these  letters  you 
wffl  find,  •Hfrffd  with  red  ink  br  oiirselres, 
the  md  "inpeetx^7  the  word  'Efawfc,9  the 
woid  -siatioo,'  and  the  rad  "roond  hoase :  * 
-..'_':.  ~~  :..-'•'.  -."-  :  '  >-.i~-  '.'--  ~  '•  ::.  ~:  !:"_ 
he  voaldhaTO  written  the  wmA 4  Sweeney"  as 
yoa  wffl  find  i t  in  the  word  *  Swatara.'  His 
that  Mr.  Baal  may  explain  the  raenUanoes  of 
HL:.-:-::_J  :.:  :1  -  :-:;  -I  :  :lr  ::^_  _:;-. 
im  as  &  witness 


"!§•%  Baal. 

Horn.  It  seetaed  he  was  trapped  into  a  discos- 
aiom/BT  Us  own  ptitunaal  daaeter.  If  the 
attorneys  of  the  Cattarangos  and  Opelousas 
Road  kad  ajiy  charges  to  make  against  him  let 
them  m.11%1*  tfa'™  Hi»  offic8  was  perfertlv 
well  known,  and  nobody  supposed  he  would 
ran  away— this  with  a  sneer.  His  attorneys 
so  and  so;  and  any 
to 


296  SYBIL   KNOX. 

at  this  he  looked  round  as  if  he  were  about  to 
leave. 

" Not  quite  yet,."  said  Mr.  Scarlett,  "we 
have  several  questions  to  put  to  you.  Do  I 
understand  Mr.  Baal  to  say  that  he  knows 
nothing  of  this  writing  ? " 

"I  have  already  said  that  I  never  saw  the 
man  Black  before  I  came  into  this  room. 
What  have  I  to  do  with  the  lower  officers  of 
the  Cattaraugus  and  Opelousas?  " 

"  If  Mr.  Baal  declines  to  testify  to  the  writ- 
ing I  will  call  the  attention  of  the  foreman  and 
of  the  jury  to  this  slip  of  paper,"  said  Mr. 
Scarlett.  He  stepped  forward  himself  to  the 
foreman,  who  held  in  his  hand  the  half-sheet 
which  he  had  read  to  the  jury,  and  gave  to 
him  the  other  half-sheet,  which  had  been 
torn  from  it.  It  was  perfectly  clear  from 
the  indentures  that  the  sheets  fitted  to- 
gether. 

"  I  have  told  you  where  we  found  the  first 
of  these  sheets,  gentlemen,"  said  Mr.  Scarlett, 
standing  close  in  the  presence  of  the  jury. 
"The  other  half  came  to  us  by  mail  last  week 
from  the  wife  of  the  witness  Berlitz,  who  will 


be  called,  tint  be  mar  tdd  you  bow  it 


Our  old  friend  Ctakuil  Berfiiz  was 
pat  on  Hie  stand.  Mr.  Seaiieii  lianAiJ 
the  second  half  of  the  sheet,  and  asked  him  if 
be  recognized  it.  Berlitz  was  obliged  to  testify 
in  German,  but  one  of  the  jmy  who  understood 


precer.  and  this  ^aire^d  but  a  moment's  delay. 
Berlin  looked  witb  surprise  upon  the  letter, 
and  said  it  was  the  letter  be  wrote  his  little 
girl  as  soon  as  be  knew  where  she  was.  "  I 
bad  no  other  paper,"  said  he.  "  The  pnson- 
feeeper  bad  given  me  one  sheet,  aad  I  had  used 
that  for  my  wife,  and  this  sheet  was  a  piece  I 
bad  had  with  some  tobacco  in  it  ewer  since  the 
morning  I  was  arrested.  I  smoothed  it  out 
and  wrote  upon  it." 

"Tefl  the  jury  where  the  sheet  came  fcom," 
And  Berlin  said,  without  the 
that  he  had  taken  the  piece  of 
reen  the  nOs  SB  he  walked  up 


down  on  the  night  when  he  was  arrested. 
He  bad  a  piece  of  tobacco  which  be  wanted  to 
save  for  the  next  day.  and  he  explained  to  the 


298  SYBIL   KNOX. 

jury  at  some  length  his  reasons  for  wrapping 
this  tobacco  and  tying  it  with  a  string.  When 
he  was  arrested  and  imprisoned  his  other 
effects  had  been  taken  from  him,  but  he  had 
begged  for  the  tobacco,  and  had  been  permitted 
to  keep  it.  So  he  had  the  paper  among  the 
little  fixtures  of  his  cell  in  the  House  of  Cor- 
rection, and,  wishing  to  write  to  his  daughter, 
he  had  written  his  letter  on  the  blank  page. 

Scarlett  then  turned  the  page,  showed  to  the 
jury  .that  the  words  were  finished  which  had 
been  unfinished  on  the  paper  he  had  first  put 
in  their  hands.  He  then  called  their  attention 
to  the  fact  that  this  was  a  sheet  of  the  ruled 
paper  of  the  Great  Midland  Railway,  and  that 
it  was  a  sheet  of  the  form  used  in  the  presi- 
dent's office. 

"  We  do  not  ask  you,  gentlemen,  to  convict 
anybody  on  this  testimony.  We  shall  intro- 
duce this  piece  of  paper,  if  you  find  a  bill,  be- 
fore the  jury  which  is  to  try  this  man  Walker, 
and  we  shall  introduce  it  as  a  part  of  the  evi- 
dence which  shows  that  the  Great  Midland  Com- 
pany is  responsible  for  all  the  series  of  acci- 
dents which  have  fallen  upon  this  railway," 


John  Coadert  thought  that  Mr.  Baal  looked 

show  that  he  was  not  the  most  unconcerned 
pjf*MM"  in  the  room. 

Gerhard  Berlitz  then  continued  his  testi- 
mony. Bat  really  there  was  nothing  in  it  which 
had  not  come  out  on  the  case  of  incendiar- 
ism before,  and  it  was  impossible  for  either  of 
tiie  attorneys  to  draw  from  him  anything  but 
the  most  outside  account  of  what  had  happened 
to  him.  Before  he  left  the  stand  Mr.  Scarlett 

"  Mr.  Berlitz,  when  TOOT  clothes  were  taken 
from  yon  at  the  prison  this  pin  was  found 
among  diem  ;  "  and  he  handed  to  him  a  small 
pin  with  a  single  diamond  in  it.  "Are  you  in 
the  habit  of  wearing  pins  like  this  !*? 

he  looked  at  the  pin,  and 
gurpnuppfl.    Then  he  said, 


wore  the  pin.  I  put  it  in  my 
that  I  might  save  it.  I  found  the 
pin  between  the  slats  of  the  seat  on  which  I 
tried  to  sleep  that  night,  when  I  was  waiting 
for  the  train,  before  the  fire.  That  was  woe*  I 


300  SYBIL   KNOX. 

went  to  the  station-master.  I  went  to  tell  him 
about  the  pin.  But  his  office  was  shut,  and  I 
put  it  in  iny  sleeve.  When  the  fire  came  I 
forgot  the  pin  was  there." 

Mr.  Scarlett  crossed  the  room  to  Mr.  Baal, 
and  showed  to  him  the  pin.  "Do  you  remem- 
ber this  pin  ?  Have  you  ever  seen  it  before  ? " 

Baal  looked  upon  it  with  scorn,  and  said  : 

"Of  course  I  have  never  seen  it  before.  I 
have  never  seen  any  of  these  people  who  are 
talking  here." 

"  So  you  said,"  said  Mr.  Scarlett ;  and  then, 
walking  to  the  foreman,  he  said,  "  If  you  will 
look  on  the  back  of  the  pin  you  will  see  the 
letters  '  W.  B.'  These  letters  stand  for  *  Win- 
field  Baal.'  Our  next  witness,  Mr.  Foreman, 
is  the  jeweller  in  New  York  who  sold  the  pin 
to  Mr.  Baal  six  years  ago,  and  who,  at  his  or- 
ders, marked  the  back  of  it  with  the  letters 
which  you  see.  Call  Mr.  Erastus  Tiffany." 

As  Mr.  Erastus  Tiffany  entered  the  room 
there  was  a  little  pressure  and  confusion  among 
people  who  tried  to  enter  with  him,  but  who 
were  kept  out  by  the  officer  at  the  door.  When 
order  was. restored,  and  Mr.  Tiffany  took  the 


SYBIL  KN'OX.  301 

stand,  it  was  observed  that  Mr.  Baal  was  not 
in  the  room.  Mr.  Scarlett  whispered  to  an 
officer,  whom  he  directed  to  follow  him,  bnt 
the  officer  did  not  find  Mr.  BaaL  Mr.  Baal's 
valise  was  never  taken  from  the  hotel  where  it 
had  been  left.  And  from  that  moment  to  this 
moment  Mr.  Baal  has  never  been  seen  in  the 
United  States  of  America, 

In  the  next  morning's  issue  of  the  Xew 
York  papers  the  announcement  was  made 
with  flaring  headlines  that,  after  an  examina- 
tion before  the  grand  jury  of  Wilson  County, 
in  the  State  of  Franklin,  Mr.  Winfield  Baal,  the 
distinguished  president  of  the  Great  Midland 
Company,  had  disappeared.  His  luggage  was 
at  the  Pontiac  House,  but  Mr.  Baal  had  not 
appeared  to  claim  it.  The  papers  regretted 
that,  owing  to  the  antiquated,  prehistoric  code 
of  the  State  of  Franklin,  reporters  had  not  been 
permitted  to  be  present  at  the  hearing  before 
the  grand  jury.  But  it  was  generally  under- 
stood in  the  town  of  Coramville  that  the  hear- 
ing had  related  to  an  alleged  conspiracy  in 
which  the  Great  Midland,  under  the  direction 
of  Mr.  Baal,  had  brought  about  sundry  wrecks 


302  SYBIL   KNOX. 

and  misfortunes  to  the  Cattaraugus  and  Opel- 
ousas.  At  immense  length  the  history  of  the 
accident  of  fifteen  months  before  was  related. 
In  one  way  and  another  a  column  was  filled  with 
stating  what  the  journals  in  question  did  not 
know,  but  what  they  thought  the  public  ought 
to  know.  The  upshot  of  the  whole,  however, 
was  that  Mr.  Winfield  Baal,  fearful  of  the 
wrathy  citizens  of  Wilson  County,  and  more 
fearful  of  arrest  and  imprisonment,  had  left  the 
town  of  Coramville.  One  intelligent  reporter 
was  sure  he  had  seen  him  in  St.  Louis,  two 
others  were  certain  that  he  had  been  in  Chicago, 
a  fourth  had  visited  his  office  in  New  York,  to 
find  that  he  had  not  been  there  for  a  week. 
And  this  was  the  beginning  of  a  series  of  head- 
line articles  with  regard  to  Mr.  Winfield  Baal, 
which  continued  for  a  fortnight.  It  was  then 
made  sure  that  he  had  arrived  safely  in  Mon- 
treal within  twenty-four  hours  after  he  had  left 
Coramville,  and  that  at  Montreal  he  had  disap- 
peared. Whether  at  this  moment  Mr.  Baal  is 
living  in  a  back  province  in  Brazil,  or  in  some 
unknown  city  in  Spain,  is  a  question  which 
cannot  be  answered  by  this  author. 


SYBIL  KXOX:.  33 

When  Sybil  Knox  heard,  as  she  did  hear  at 
once,  of  this  dramatic  conclusion  to  the  ter- 
rible drama  in  which  her  father  s  railroad  had 
so  nearly  been  the  Tphigenia  of  the  sacrifice, 
she  had  the  satisfaction  of  knowing  that  her 
own  promptness,  in  sending  to  John  Coudert 
the  scrap  of  paper  over  which  she  had  fonnd 
little  Clarchen  Berlitz  puzzling,  had  added  one 
more  to  the  threads  which  were  twisted  into 
the  clew  by  which  all  parties  worked  their  way 
to  the  daylight. 


CHAPTER  XXV. 

WHEN  it  was  first  whispered,  and  after- 
ward publicly  announced,  in  the  room 
where  the  grand  jury  held  its  inquiry,  that  the 
great  Mr.  Baal  had  fled  from  the  town,  "  leav- 
ing his  baggage  at  the  Pontiac" — and  this 
phrase  was  always  added — every  aspect  of  the 
case  of  the  C.  &  0.  was  changed.  The  attor- 
neys suggested  an  adjournment,  and  the  fore- 
man of  the  jury,  with  some  pretext  of  more  tes- 
timony, consented  that  the  hearing  should  be 
finished  the  next  day. 

The  time  was  favorable  for  approaching  the 
incendiary  station-master  again.  And  when 
Scarlett  talked  with  him  privately,  and  made 
it  clear  to  him  that  he  had  nothing  farther  to 
hope  from  any  loyalty  to  Baal,  he  broke  down. 
He  admitted  that  there  had  been  a  interview  in 
which  Baal  had  promised  him,  and  had  told 
him  that  he  might  promise  the  others,  the 
places  and  the  money  named  on  the  torn  sheet 

304 


SYBIL  KSOX.  305 

of  paper.  Bui  had  refused  to  give  him  the 
paper,  and  had  told  him  that  the  others  most 
trust  him.  But  when  he  had  remonstrated,  Baal 
had  torn  off  the  heading  of  the  sheet,  and  had 
gjren  him  what  was  left.  By  some  careless- 
nessBaal  had  thrown  away  his  part  without 
*uamcr  it.  In  a  halting  way  Black  told  this 
to  the  foreman  and  the  jury  the  next  morn- 
ing. 

Bat  the  interest  in  these  poor  wretches  was 
at  an  end.  They  had  merely  been  the  catspaws 
of  the  great  operator,  who  had  in  one  blunder 
thrown  away,  so  far  as  his  own  life  was  con- 
cerned, all  the  successes  of  years. 

Tb  Sybil  Knox,  John  Coudert  telegraphed, 
"  Yietory.  Your  scrap  of  paper  was  enough. 
I  wiU  write  at  length,  but  I  want  yon  to  know 
that  afl  is  welL"  To  Judge  Kendrick,  who 
was  again  in  Xew  York,  he  telegraphed,  "B. 
has  broken  down  and  fled  the  country.  All 
goes  welL"  As  it  happened,  when  this  dis- 
patch arnred,  ConTers  Knox,  the  cross  kins- 
man who  had  insisted  that  Mrs.  Knox  should 
sell  out  her  interest  in  the  C.  &  O.,  and  when 
she  refused  to  do  so  had  thrown  up  her  af- 


306  SYBIL   KNOX. 

fairs,  was  in  Judge  Kendrick' s  office.  Judge 
Kendrick  lost  his  head  for  a  moment,  and  read 
the  dispatch  to  Mr.  Knox,  who  was  giving  him 
some  details  which  it  was  necessary  that  he 
should  know  regarding  Mrs.  Knox's  affairs. 
Convers  Knox  excused  himself  as  soon  as  he 
could,  and  going  to  Wall  Street  bought  C.  &  O. 
securities  as  largely  as  he  dared,  and  much  more 
largely  than  he  should  have  done,  on  the 
strength  of  the  information  which  he  had  re- 
ceived. This  was  the  first  intimation  which 
"the  street"  had  that  any  thing  had  happened 
to  the  poor  struggling  railroad.  From  that 
time,  however,  it  may  be  said  that  its  interests 
steadily  advanced,  and  that  it  recovered  the 
honorable  position  which,  in  elder  days,  it  had 
held  among  investors.  Convers  Knox  made 
more  money  than  it  is  worth  while  to  tell  on 
the  accident  by  which  Judge  Kendrick  had  put 
into  his  hands  this  bit  of  information.  For 
the  judge  himself,  as  for  John  Coudert,  Scar- 
lett, and  Governor  Needham,  the  whole  busi- 
ness was  a  sort  of  sacred  trust ;  and  any  one  of 
them  would  have  been  ashamed  to  stain  his 
hands  in  any  transaction  by  which  he  should 


SYBIL  KXOX.  307 

on  Hie  simpte  administration  of 
justice.    And  when  we  have  said  this,  we  may 
reader  from  following  the  details  of 


John  Coudert  himself  could  not  do  what  he 
wonkl  have  been  glad  to  do— take  an  express 
train,  UJiifiiJ^ili  in  advance  for  private  trains  to 
be  ready  for  him  at  every  way-station,  and  so 
fly,  faster  than  Aladdin  ever  flew,  from  Gran- 
Yflle  to  Atherton,  as  lovers  wflLeren  fljfmjrh 
they  be  more  than  thirty  years  of  age.  He  had 
his  duties  srilL  He  had  to  remain  with  his 
-Brother  Scarlett,"  and  with  the  other  brother 
who  was  the  county  attorney  of  Wilson 
County,  tin  the  presentation  of  the  grand  jury 
was  complete,  and  until  a  true  hffl  of  indict- 
ment had  been  found  against  Walker,  the  car- 
inspector.  But,  as  has  been  intimated,  aU 
these  proceedings  were  languid  indeed,  corn- 
pared  with  those  with  which  the  inquest  had 
begun.  It  seemed  a  shame,  indeed  it  seemed 
mortifying,  that  poor  Walker  and  Black 
should  be  paying  the  penalty  where  the  an  of 
the  other  was  so  much  greyer  than  theirs.  It 
seemed  hard  that  they,  who  had  been  led  into 


308  SYBIL  KNOX. 

temptation,* should  suffer  when  the  tempter 
escaped. 

For  Gerhard  Berlitz,  of  course,  the  revela- 
tions made  before  the  grand  inquest  meant 
liberty.  It  required  but.  a  day  for  Scarlett  to 
advise  "jolly  Ned  Needham"  that  Berlitz' s 
testimony  had  proved  of  the  first  value  in  the 
cause  of  justice,  and  that,  by  Black' sown  con- 
fession, Berlitz  had  no  connection  whatever 
with  the  fire,  excepting  that  he  was  the  first 
person  to  give  an  alarm.  By  the  return  of  the 
mail,  therefore,  there  came  a  full  pardon  from 
the  governor  for  the  poor  German,  and  a  pub- 
lic announcement  was  made,  with  all  solem- 
nity, of  the  regret  of  the  executive  that  a  ver- 
dict which  was  evidently  a  mistaken  verdict 
should  have  condemned  him,  and  that  he  had 
suffered  so  long.  The  governor  himself  sent  a 
handsome  present  to  the  poor  fellow,  and  other 
gentlemen  in  the  State  made  it  their  business 
to  write  to  express  their  mortification  and  re- 
gret for  what  had  happened.  In  every  way 
possible,  he  was  assured  that  his  reputation 
could  receive  no  stain,  and  that  he  went  out  as 


SYBIL   KXOX-  309 

a  free  man,  with  the  confidence  and  respect  of 
all  who  knew  him.  When  he  was  well  shaven, 
and  dressed  in  the  Sunday  best  of  happier 
times,  which  had  been  kept  for  him  in  the 
store-houses  of  the  benevolent  prison-keeper, 
Berlitz  looked  like  another  man.  And  when 
Coudert  shook  hands  with  him,  as  he  took  the 
express  train  for  Buffalo,  Albany,  and  so  for 
Atherton,  envying  him  the  good  fortune  which 
was  to  conduct  him  to  that  paradise,  it  seemed 
impossible  that  he  was  the  same  dogged,  down- 
cast, and  wretched  creature  whom,  but  so  few 
weeks  before,  he  had  called  for  his  first  inter- 
view in  the  harness-room. 

Rightly  or  wrongly,  the  attorney-general, 
Scarlett,  declined  to  press  before  the  jury  the 
original  proposal,  by  which  Black  might  have 
been  included  as  one  of  the  conspirators  with 
Walker  for  the  wreck  of  the  train.  "It  is  a 
bad  mess/"  he  said,  "  the  whole  of  it.  We  are 
punishing  one  man  for  the  sin  of  another,  and 
the  other  has  got  away.  Black  has  given  the 
State,  on  the  whole,  very  valuable  testimony, 
and  I  will  be  no  party  to  seeing  that  he  has  an- 


310  SYBIL   KNOX. 

other  term  of  confinement  after  this  one  is 
over."  And  with  this  rough  bit  of  what  per- 
haps savors  of  Lynch  law,  Black  returned  to 
his  eel],  and  to  his  remaining  months  of  sen- 
tence. 


CHAPTER  XXVL 

A  TELEGRAM  is  sent  from  some  scene  of 
-LA-  wild  excitement,  of  hope  and  joy,  or 
of  dead  despair.  It  arrives  in  a  place  with 
another  atmosphere,  of  which  the  surround- 
ings are  so  different  that  yon  can  hardly 
believe  that  they  belong  to  the  same  world. 
A  war-correspondent  writes  his  dispatch  on  a 
drum-head,  in  the  midst  of  shot  and  bursting 
shells.  And  it  comes  to  a  quiet  attic,  where 
a  quiet  night-editor  is  trying  to  determine 
whether  his  public  on  the  morrow  will  be  more 
interested  in  a  Bethel  Sunday-school  excur- 
sion or  in  the  match  in  which  Hopkinsons 
School  beat  the  High  School.  Such  was  the 
fate  of  John  Coudert's  dispatch  to  Sybil 
Knox.  It  left  the  heated  frenzy  of  surprise, 
doubt,  despair,  on  the  one  side,  and  victory  on 
the  other.  It  was  read  in  Mrs.  Knox's  parlor, 
where  the  Order  of  Send  Me  had  its  first 
monthly  meeting  after  her  initiation. 


312  SYBIL   KNOX. 

The  meeting  had  been  reverently  opened  by 
the  little  ritual  service,  and  the  secretary  had 
read  her  short  report,  which  could  hardly  help 
being  funny,  which  combined  the  various  sug- 
gestions and  narratives  of  the  last  meeting. 
The  verbal  reports  of  different  committees  were 
received,  and  then  Mrs.  Carrigan,  with  a  good 
deal  of  feeling,  said  : 

"Girls  all — and  Mrs.  Knox  will  not  mind  if 
we  call  her  a  girl — before  we  come  on  regular 
work  there  is  one  thing  I  must  say,  and  I  will 
clear  my  mind  now.  There  is  not  one  word  on 
the  records  about  Mrs.  Edwards.  That  must 
be  right,  because  what  records  are  for,  I 
believe,  is  to  conceal  the  truth  of  history,  so 
that  the  next  generation  may  not  know  how 
we  live  and  move  and  earn  our  living.  And 
I  am  glad  for  many  reasons  that  poor  Mrs. 
Edwards — dear  Mrs.  Edwards,  I  am  going  to 
say — does  not  appear  there.  But  I  know, 
and  you  know,  that  Mrs.  Edwards  and  her 
gossiping  tongue  have  cost  this  Order  a  good 
deal  of  time  this  fall. 

"Now,  shortly,  what  I  want  to  say  is  this. 
The  poor  dear  soul  came  to  see  me  yesterday, 


STHL  K5TOX.  313 

and  she  had  a  good  cry.  She  cried,  and  before 
she  was  done  I  cried.  She  said  that  she 
was— well,  she  said  more  than  was  worth 
while  about  that— she  was  ever  so  much 
obliged  for  what  Mr.  Canigan  did  for  her  poor 
boy.  Hie  boy  is  all  right;  he  is  in  the 
clothes-pin  factory  at  Asney,  or  is  going  to 
be  there.  And  she  says  he  has  learned  his 
and  win  know  how  to  hold  his  tongue 
he  has  nothing  to  say. 

"I  tried  to  make  her  laugh,  and  I  told  her 
that  that  was  the  greatest  lesson  that  anyone 
ewer  learned,  and  the  hardest.  But  she  would 
not  langh.  She  said  so.  She  said,  so  sadly, 
that  she  wished  she  could  laugh  as  she  used 
to.  Bat  she  and  she  should  never  be  so  fight- 
hearted  again.  That  a.  boy  of  hers  should  be 
in  prison— that  was  terrible. 

-Bat  she  had  come  to  say  to  me,  as  if  I 
were  a  sort  of  priestess,  you  know,  that  she 
had  learned  her  lesson  too.  And  she  wanted 
to  make  me  say  that  I  would  publicly  an- 
nounce,  at  the  sewing  society  and  wherever  I 
chose,  that  she  saw  her  fault  and  that  she 
would  mend  it.  And  poor  I— I  was  crying  as 


314  SYBIL   KNOX. 

hard  as  she  was — and  I  tried  to  say  that  she 
judged  herself  too  hardly  ;  and  the  words 
choked  in  my  throat.  For  she  has  not ;  she 
has  done  no  end  of  mischief,  and  she  knows  it, 
and  I  know  it.  So  I  said  nothing,  but  just 
kissed  her.  And  that  is  all,  girls.  But  that  is 
the  reason  why  I  call  her  dear  Mrs.  Edwards, 
because  I  am  so  sorry  for  her.  Now  there  is 
not  a.  word  of  this  to  go  on  our  books.  But 
the  Recording  Angel  has  it  on  his  book 
already,  for  it  is  by  far  the  most  important 
thing  that  Atherton  has  shown  this  summer. 

"  Now,  Mrs.  Knox,  if  you  like  to  tell  us  how 
to  talk  French,  we  will  learn." 

So  the  girls,  who  had  been  surprised  to  hear 
the  impetuous  lady  say  "dear  Mrs.  Edwards  " 
of  the  woman  whom,  the  week  before,  she  had 
most  disliked  of  their  little  circle,  had  their 
answer. 

Mrs.  Knox  and  Miss  Robideau  plunged  into 
the  story  of  the  Canadian  reading-room,  with 
its  surprises,  its  many  failures,  and  its  occa- 
sional successes.  All  the  little  company  lis- 
tened and  laughed  or  sighed  as  the  varying 
waves  of  the  story  lifted  or  depressed  them. 


E3TOX.  315 

It  was  in  the  midst  of  this  that  they  saw  the 
liilflfl"  "jf*  boy's  bicycle.  Everybody  knew 
him,  and  his  yellow  envelope  was  brought  in. 

Sybil  Knox  took  the  dispatch  as  she  always 
did  A  telegram  always  frightens  a  woman. 
But  she— she  had  that  cruel  feeling  that  she 
had  gone  through  die  worst  that  life  could 
offer,  and  that  she  could  never  have  utterly 
bad  news  again.  She  did  not  tear  open  the 
cover.  She  signed  the  receipt  first,  bade  them 
tefl  the  boy  to  wait,  and  then  excused  herself 
as  she  took  the  dispatch  to  the  next  room. 
When  she  returned.  Mis.  Csrrigaa.  watching 
her  with  aH  the  instincts  of  a  real  Mend, 
knew  that  one  of  the  great  Kurrflnmra  of  fife 
had  been  won. 

But  she  was  a  friend  too  true  even  to  ask  be- 
f  ore  they  went  away  what  it  was  which  made 
Sybil  Knox  more  gentle,  more  active,  more 
friendly,  more  wise,  more  sympathetic,  more 
everything  that  is  good  than  even  she  had 


And  after  a  few  days,  late  at  night,  the 
Knox  horses  and  carriage  were  at  the 


316  SYBIL   KNOX. 

at  Quarry  Village,  and  in  the  carriage  were 
Frau  Berlitz.and  the  wondering  little  Clarchen. 
And  when  the  dazed  and  doubtful  Gerhard 
stumbled  out  of  the  car,  and  looked  round 
him  on  the  platform,  his  wife  saw  him  and 
rushed  for  him,  flung  her  arms  round  him  and 
kissed  him,  and  little  Clarchen  pulled  his 
arm  and  cried  out,  "Clarchen  auch,  Clarchen 
auch !  Hier  bin  ich,  hier  bin  ich ! " 

And,  to  Berlitz' s  astonishment,  he  was  made 
to  sit  in  a  carriage  as  grand  as  that  of  the 
hereditary  forester,  and  to  drive  through 
forests  more  magnificent  than  the  hereditary 
forester  ever  saw.  Clarchen  was  happily 
asleep  on  her  father' s  knees ;  his  happy  wife 
rested  her  head  on  his  shoulder.  She  said 
little,  he  said  little,  but  the  years  of  wretched- 
ness were  swept  away  and  the  two  began  to 
live  again.  Sometimes  they  roused  up  to  ask 
this  question  or  that.  But  each  of  them  knew 
that  this  talking  was  rather  a  function  or 
form.  It  was  to  deceive  the  coachman  rather 
than  to  deceive  themselves.  For  themselves 
it  was  enough  that  they  were  together. 
"Together""  was  the  whole. 


SYBDL  K3T03L 


It  mas  almost  a  week  later  that  John 
GoBdert  appealed  at  the  Chittpmitei,  and, 
after  he  had  luioimed  his  dress,  asked  the 
way  to  Mrs.  Knar  s.,  and  walked  up  to  the 
house.  He  tried  not  to  aeon  eager  to  the 
-attentire  derk_"  who  was  wondering  what 
busmen  sent  him  to  Athertoo.  Fortunately 
for  him,  the  *»iKi^r  and  beaming  Oazehen, 
who  recognized  him  in  a  moment,,  when  she 
came  to  the  door,  said  that  Mrs.  Knax:  was  at 


Had  he  said  what  he  came  to  say  and  longed 

to  sav,  when  nhft  CHUB  «»«ilMMr  into  the  paA»r 
and  gave  him  both  her  hands,  k  would  have 

""Dear  Mrs,  Knox,  I  have  tried  for  the  last; 
six:  months  to  live  without  yon,  and  I  can- 
not." 

But  the  proprieties  of  modern  li/«?  hindered 
him,  He  could  only  accept  her  ready  con- 
gntnlations.  He  threw  off  his  fight  orcrcoat 
as  he  was  bidden.  He  answered,  in  a  *""!"«•», 
all  her  proper  questions  about  Ms  journey, 
about  the  hotel,  and  the  rest  And  when  this 
regulation  -•'opening"  had  been  well  pushed 


318  SYBIL    KNOX. 

through,  each  moving  the  right  pawn  as  usage 
directs,  she  said : 

"Now  tell  the  whole,  Mr.  Coudert,  We 
have  all  the  afternoon.  No  one  shall  interrupt 
us."  And  she  even  struck  the  bell,  and  said 
in  German  to  the  little  girl,  "  Mr.  Coudert  has 
come  on  important  business.  You  must  say 
that  I  am  very  much  engaged." 

And  so  John  Coudert,  who  had  something 
else  so  near  his  heart,  had  to  go  back  to  that 
long  story  of  which  the  reader  knows  a  little. 
The  reader,  more  fortunate  than  Mr.  Coudert, 
has  had  the  kindly  help  of  this  author,  who 
has  omitted  from  the  narration  all  that  is  not 
absolutely  important.  But  John  Coudert  is  a 
good  story-teller,  and  he  had  a  good  listener. 
How  he  tried  to  guess,  as  he  talked,  whether 
all  her  interest  were  interest  in  the  story  or  in 
Berlitz,  how  he  tried  to  hope  from  her  smile  or 
from  her  tone  of  voice,  or  from  her  eye,  that 
there  was  some  little  interest  in  him.  Was  she 
glad  of  success,  or  was  she  glad  that  he  had 
succeeded?  Was  she  sorry  for  failure,  or  was 
she  sorry  that  he  had  failed  ?  Who  should 
say  ? 


SYBIL   KXOX.  319 

She  did  not  say.  She  was  a  true  woman, 
and  after  the  two  hours  of  their  talk  her  secret 
was  her  own. 

She  touched  the  bell  "  Clarchen,  tell  Mrs. 
Chittenden  to  send  us  some  tea,  and  bid  them 
send  round  the  carriage.  I  am  going  to  take  two 
nice  girls  to  drive,  Mr.  Coudert,  and  I  am  so 
pleased  to  have  you  for  the  fourth.  We  will 
show  you  our  prettiest  drive.  And  then  you 
must  come  back  and  dine."* 

And  she  did  so.  She  had  promised  Blanche 
Wilderspin  and  Mary  to  call  for  them.  There 
was  time  for  a  perfect  sunset  view,  and  for  the 
drive  home  just  so  as  not  to  be  late  for  dinner. 
She  had  sent  for  Colonel  Canigan  and  Mrs. 
Carrigan.  and  till  he  bade  her  good-evening  and 
went  away  in  the  Carrigan"  s  carriage,  he  did 
not  have  another  word  with  her  alone. 

"May  I  come  round  in  the  morning  to  take 
you  to  the  marble  quarries  * "  said  the  hospita- 
ble Colonel  Carrigan,  as  they  parted  at  the 
hoteL 

Horror  was  in  the  thought !  A  morning  at 
a  marble  quarry,  which  he  must  spend  at  the 
Knox  house!  Never!  He  mumbled  some- 


320  SYBIL   KNOX. 

thing  about  his  letters,  and  writing  for  the 
mail,  but  had  to  hear  the  colonel  say  he  should 
come  round  to  make  plans  in  the  morning. 

And  that  night  he  had  to  spend  in  wonder- 
ing. He  knew  no  more  of  his  fortunes  with 
Sybil  Knox  than  he  knew  the  night  before, 
when  he  tossed  and  pitched  on  the  billows  of  a 
Wagner  car. 

The  next  morning  he  shook  off  Colonel  Car- 
rigan,  and  rang  again  at  Sybil  Knox's  door. 
Was  he  a  lit  tie  pale  as  he  greeted  her?  And 
was  she  ?  She  did  not  give  him  both  hands 
again. 

And  he  would  not  even  sit  down  as  she  asked 
him  to  do. 

"  No,"  said  he,  "  not  yet.  Perhaps  you  will 
not  want  me  to  stay,"  this  with  a  sick  smile. 
"  This  time  I  have  not  come  to  talk  of  wrecks 
and  wreckers,  but  of  myself  and  you.  Dear  Mrs. 
Knox,  when  I  bade  you  good-bye  in  Europe  I 
longed  to  tell  you  so.  All  summer  long  I  would 
have  told  you  so.  But  I  had  no  right  to  do  so.  I 
have  no  right  to  say  so  now,  but  I  cannot  help 
saying  it.  I  have  come  to  Atherton  to  say  so. 
To  say  how  lonely  I  have  been  all  summer,  be- 


SYBLL  EN-OX.  321 

cause  I  knew  you  were  here,  and  I — oh,  so  far 
away." 

And  she  looked  down,  and  she  looked  up. 
She  looked  down  and  blushed,  she  looked  up 
and  smiled. 

And  she  said,  "It  is  so  good  that  yon  are 
here  now." 


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